While the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred intense research and collaborative discovery worldwide, the development of a safe, effective, and targeted antiviral from the ground up is time intensive. Therefore, most antiviral discovery efforts are focused on the re-purposing of clinical stage or approved drugs. While emerging data on drugs undergoing COVID-19 repurpose are intriguing, there is an undeniable need to develop broad-spectrum antivirals to prevent future viral pandemics of unknown origin. The ideal drug to curtail rapid viral spread would be a broad-acting agent with activity against a wide range of viruses. Such a drug would work by modulating host-proteins that are often shared by multiple virus families thereby enabling preemptive drug development and therefore rapid deployment at the onset of an outbreak. Targeting host-pathways and cellular proteins that are hijacked by viruses can potentially offer broad-spectrum targets for the development of future antiviral drugs. Such host-directed antivirals are also likely to offer a higher barrier to the development and selection of drug resistant mutations. Given that most approved antivirals do not target host-proteins, we reinforce the need for the development of such antivirals that can be used in pre- and post-exposure populations.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Pandemics, broad-spectrum antivirals, Drug discovery and development, Coronavirus (CoV), host-directed antivirals, Mechanism of action (MOA), Antiviral drug design, Drug design strategies, Prophylactic antiviral therapy, 【초록키워드】 viruses, Antiviral, COVID-19 pandemic, mutations, antiviral drugs, drug, viral spread, virus, approved drugs, outbreak, Research, target, Safe, effort, targeting, while, offer, broad-spectrum antiviral, populations, Prevent, effective, develop, can be used, curtail, modulating, 【제목키워드】 Antiviral,