Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Early Viral Entry Assays for the Identification and Evaluation of Antiviral Compounds
Published on: October 29, 2015
The recent outbreaks of human coronaviruses: A medicinal chemistry perspective
Thanigaimalai Pillaiyar1, Lukas L Wendt1, Manoj Manickam2
1PharmaCenter Bonn, Pharmaceutical Institute, Pharmaceutical & Medicinal Chemistry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Abstract:
Coronaviruses (CoVs) infect both humans and animals. In humans, CoVs can cause respiratory, kidney, heart, brain, and intestinal infections that can range from mild to lethal. Since the start of the 21st century, three β-coronaviruses have crossed the species barrier to infect humans: severe-acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-1, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV). These viruses are dangerous and can easily be transmitted from human to human. Therefore, the development of anticoronaviral therapies is urgently needed. However, to date, no approved vaccines or drugs against CoV infections are available. In this review, we focus on the medicinal chemistry efforts toward the development of antiviral agents against SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, targeting biochemical events important for viral replication and its life cycle. These targets include the spike glycoprotein and its host-receptors for viral entry, proteases that are essential for cleaving polyproteins to produce functional proteins, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase for viral RNA replication.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Drug Discovery: Overview
Synthetic Biology
Golden rice
Golden rice is a genetically modified...
Viral Mutations
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs
Viral Recombination
Subviral Agents

