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Recent Advances in Antiviral Drug Discovery

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinal Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 August 2021) | Viewed by 539

Special Issue Editors

Chemical Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
Interests: chemical biology; medicinal chemistry; organic chemistry; drug design; HIV; integrase
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Chemical Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
Interests: bioorganic and medicinal chemistry; peptide and peptide mimetic chemistry; inhibitors of phospho-dependent protein-protein interactions (PPIs); HIV integrase inhibitors; antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs); protein-tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is the causative agent for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This is a potentially life-threatening chronic disease that represents a major global public health crisis. Since the start of the AIDS pandemic, approximately 80 million people have been infected with HIV-1 and more than 30 million people have died of AIDS-related diseases. Approximately 40 million people are currently living with HIV infection. As a retrovirus, HIV encodes three key enzymes (reverse transcriptase (RT), integrase (IN), and protease (PR)) that are essential for viral replication. These enzymes catalyze reverse transcription of the viral RNA, integration of the resulting complementary DNA into the host genome, and proteolytic processing of transcribed viral protein. Drugs that target these three enzymes are widely used in combination antiretroviral therapies (cARTs) that have dramatically improved patient outcomes. The HIV-1 life cycle also entails additional key steps that are essential for viral replication. These steps include binding to cell surface proteins, fusion with the cell membrare, and viral assembly and budding. These processes also represent potential targets for therapeutic development. However, the extremely high mutation rate of HIV-1 means that drug-resistant variants are continually emerging against existing therapeutics. This makes it imperative to continue developing new and more potent antiviral compounds.

This Special Issue of Molecules is dedicated to bringing together research articles and reviews in the area of antiviral agent discovery and development related to HIV and more generally to antiviral therapeutics.

Dr. Xue Zhi Zhao
Dr. Terrence R. Burke
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • antiviral
  • antiretroviral
  • drug resistance
  • drug design
  • antiviral small molecule
  • antiviral peptide
  • mutant

Published Papers

There is no accepted submissions to this special issue at this moment.
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