Yeast-Based Screening of Anti-Viral Molecules

Viruses are minuscule infectious agents that reproduce exclusively within the living cells of an organism and are present in almost every ecosystem. Their continuous interaction with humans poses a significant threat to the survival and well-being of everyone. Apart from the common cold or seasonal influenza, viruses are also responsible for several important diseases such as polio, rabies, smallpox, and most recently COVID-19. Besides the loss of life and long-term health-related issues, clinical viral infections have significant economic and social impacts. Viral enzymes, especially proteases which are essential for viral multiplication, represent attractive drug targets. As a result, screening of viral protease inhibitors has gained a lot of interest in the development of anti-viral drugs. Despite the availability of anti-viral therapeutics, there is a clear need to develop novel curative agents that can be used against a given virus or group of related viruses. This review highlights the importance of yeasts as an in vivo model for screening viral enzyme inhibitors. We also discuss the advantages of yeast-based screening platforms over traditional assays. Therefore, in the present article, we discuss why yeast is emerging as a model of choice for in vivo screening of anti-viral molecules and why yeast-based screening will become more relevant in the future for screening anti-viral and other molecules of clinical importance.