Ricerc@Sapienza

Zika virus (ZikV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, has spread across the Western Hemisphere in the past year and it has been defined by the World Health Organization as a serious global biological-threat. Currently, no vaccines or licensed antiviral drugs are available to block Zika infection and vector control efforts remain the only means to stop the spread of the infection.
The rapid development of a safe and effective ZikV therapy is a global health priority. For this reason, the design and development of new antiviral drugs, used for the treatment and control of ZikV, prove to be necessary.
Viral NS2B-NS3 protease processes viral polyprotein and is essential for virus replication, making it an attractive antiviral drug target. In the present study, starting from our hit compound, we focus on the identification of new Zika inhibitors by targeting the enzymatic activities of the NS3 protease. Beginning from our preliminary result, the aim of this research project is improving our structure-activity relationship knowledge by an exhaustive chemical modification of our starting hit compound.