Elsevier

Drug Discovery Today

Volume 26, Issue 1, January 2021, Pages 122-137
Drug Discovery Today

Keynote
Advances in the development of entry inhibitors for sialic-acid-targeting viruses

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2020.10.009Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Entry inhibitors might overcome the limitation of viral mutation.

  • Antiviral research benefits from a broad-spectrum approach.

  • Sialic acids can serve as a platform to create broad-spectrum antiviral drugs.

  • Sialic-acid-targeting drugs such as DAS-181 are promising antiviral strategies.

  • Multivalency is crucial when designing sialic-acid-based receptor analogues.

Over the past decades, several antiviral drugs have been developed to treat a range of infections. Yet the number of treatable viral infections is still limited, and resistance to current drug regimens is an ever-growing problem. Therefore, additional strategies are needed to provide a rapid cure for infected individuals. An interesting target for antiviral drugs is the process of viral attachment and entry into the cell. Although most viruses use distinct host receptors for attachment to the target cell, some viruses share receptors, of which sialic acids are a common example. This review aims to give an update on entry inhibitors for a range of sialic-acid-targeting viruses and provides insight into the prospects for those with broad-spectrum potential.

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Rick Heida received his master’s degree in biomedical sciences at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2017, with a main interest in microbiology and immunology. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD at the department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy at the University of Groningen under the supervision of Henderik W. Frijlink, Anke L.W. Huckriede and Wouter L.J. Hinrichs. His research focuses mainly on the evaluation of antiviral entry inhibitors with broad-spectrum potential and their suitability to be formulated as dry-powder formulations. In line with this, he works on optimizing methods for pulmonary administration of dry-powder formulations in small laboratory animals.

Yoshita C. Bhide completed her PhD in virology and immunology in 2018 at the University of Groningen under the supervision of Anke L.W. Huckriede. Her PhD research focused on improved and cross-protective influenza vaccine evaluation in vivo. She is now working as a postdoctoral researcher with Henderik W. Frijlink. Her current research focuses on in vitro and in vivo evaluation of novel entry inhibitors against influenza viruses. Her research has resulted in several peer-reviewed publications. Being a trained virologist, her research interests are in infectious diseases, especially viral pathogenesis and immune modulation, and the development of vaccines and antivirals.

Matteo Gasbarri received his master’s degree in materials science at the Tor Vergata University of Rome. His master thesis focused on flexible perovskite solar cells and was carried out at the Center for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy (CHOSE). In 2017, he joined Saule Technologies, developing new generation perovskite photovoltaic cells. Since September 2017, he has been a PhD student in the Supramolecular Nanomaterials and Interfaces Laboratory (SuNMIL) at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), under the supervision of Francesco Stellacci. His research is primarily focused on the development and physicochemical understanding of non-toxic broad-spectrum antiviral nanomaterials.

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These authors contributed equally.