• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

Antiviral Drugs Targeting Influenza Virus Surface Proteins: A Computational Structural Biology Approach

tetano

Editor, Senior Moderator
Yakugaku Zasshi. 2015;135(9):1015-21. doi: 10.1248/yakushi.15-00175-3.
[h=1]Antiviral Drugs Targeting Influenza Virus Surface Proteins: A Computational Structural Biology Approach.[/h] Igarashi M[SUP]1[/SUP].
[h=3]Author information[/h]

[h=3]Abstract[/h] For the prevention and control of infectious viral diseases, vaccines and antiviral drugs targeting viral proteins are of great importance. Amino acid substitutions in viral proteins occasionally cause the emergence of antibody-escape and drug-resistant mutants. With regard to this, we have studied the proteins of several viruses, especially the influenza A virus, by using techniques of computational chemistry and biology such as molecular modeling, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulations. Influenza A virus is a zoonotic pathogen that is transmitted from animals to humans. This virus has two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). The HA of influenza viruses plays a key role in the initiation of viral infection. And HA is also the major target of antibodies that neutralize viral infectivity. Some amino acid substitutions in the antigenic epitope on HA could decrease the interaction between HA and antibodies, leading to the generation of antigenic variants with novel antigenic structures of HA. In addition, HA protein seems to be a favorable target for anti-influenza drugs, but effective HA inhibitors have not been developed due to the emergence of drug-resistant viruses with amino acid substitutions on the HA. To understand how amino acid substitutions affect changes in drug susceptibility, we have been computationally analyzing the three-dimensional structures of influenza virus proteins. In this paper, we review the results obtained through our current analysis.


PMID: 26329546 [PubMed - in process] Free full text
 
Back
Top Bottom