Progress on Antiviral Drugs Research in Epidemics

Dear Colleagues,

Viruses are among the most notorious and impactful pathogens on the planet. They continue to cause massive public health concerns mainly due to their mutagenesis which might result in spillovers, escape from the immune response, and drug resistance. Basically, the 21st century has been marked by major epidemics caused by old diseases such as yellow fever, and by emerging viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Ebola, Zika, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), HIV (although technically endemic), influenza A (H1N1) and SARS-CoV-2, the last two qualified as pandemics. Most of the virus-caused diseases can lead to associated opportunistic infections and cause short- and long-term comorbidities. Therefore, different researchers are dedicated to minimizing the negative impact of these diseases by developing novel methods to prevent and control infections.

Once a virus infection is established, antiviral therapy is the main option for control of viral replication and dissemination inside the organism. Several steps during the virus life cycle can be explored as molecular targets to design novel compounds or identify repurposed drugs as antiviral candidates. For this reason, multidisciplinary approaches such as organic synthesis, in silico calculations, high-throughput screening, cell-based, and in vivo assays, have been used for research and discovery of antivirals.

This Special Issue is interested in manuscripts focused on drug designing (synthetic, semisynthetic, or natural products) and testing against viruses with epidemic and/or pandemic potential. We are pleased to invite you to contribute with original research articles or reviews that highlight the discovery process and importance of antiviral development through an interdisciplinary aspect (but not limited to) involving medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, cell and molecular biology.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Otávio Augusto Chaves
Dr. Carolina Q. Sacramento
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. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.

• synthesis of novel antivirals candidates
• structural modification in clinically approved drugs
• repurposing drugs
• natural products
• high-throughput screening
• structure-activity relationship
• antiviral and immune-modulatory activities
• cell-based and in vivo assays
• in silico calculations