Antiviral Drug Targets of Single-Stranded RNA Viruses Causing Chronic Human Diseases.

Abstract

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) containing viruses associated with chronic diseases in humans are major threats to public health causing high mortality globally. Extremely high mutation rates of RNA viruses make them deadliest and difficult to design an effective drug. Chronic infections caused by Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) and Hepatitis virus (HBV and HCV) lead to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and Hepatocellular carcinoma respectively, are the prime cause of human deaths. Effective prevention measures to limit chronic and re-emerging viral infections are absolutely necessary; remains a challenging issue. Antivirals usually inhibit different stages of the virus life-cycle, instead of killing them as in the case of the bacterial antibiotics. Most often antiviral drugs are targeted against specific viral and host protein, whereas few broad-spectrum drugs are available for targeting multiple viruses. In the recent past, exponentially increase in the number of available three-dimensional protein structures and advancements in the in silico approaches, paved way to design and develop several novel, highly specific small molecule inhibitors against protein drug targets. The present mini-review will be focused on selected single-stranded (ss) RNA genome containing human pathogenic viruses, which causes chronic infections and of special importance e.g. HIV-1, HCV, Flaviviruses, Ebola etc., their selected viral target proteins and an update about the available small-molecule inhibitors or antivirals acting against them.