Therapeutic targets for enterovirus infections

Enteroviruses are among the most common viruses causing a huge number of acute and chronic infections leading to high economic costs. Novel nontoxic antivirals that reduce the virus load in acutely infected individuals and from various surfaces are needed to efficiently combat these viruses.

This review summarizes the recent findings of compounds and tools targeting the enteroviruses and host cell molecules that are crucial for virus infection. In addition, the review states the modern methods to find new targets and tools that help to understand the mechanisms of action.

High-throughput molecular screens have revealed important aspects of virus life cycle in host cells and, concomitantly, some of the targets and compounds found serve as potential anti-virals combatting enterovirus infections. The risk of resistance development found for direct capsid binders lowers their usefulness, but combining them with compounds targeting evolutionarily conserved processes such as replication/translation makes them potentially a valid therapy for the future. Further automation and access to structural molecular tools such as cryo-EM and further development of, e.g. docking and simulation of large virus particles requiring heavy computation will contribute to better understanding of molecular mechanisms of action of future antivirals.