Interferon Pathways and Coronavirus Drug Targets
(From Potential Antiviral Agents for Coronaviruses: Compounds, Herbal Products, and Drug Targets)
- Some plus-strand RNA viruses encode proteins with macrodomains (Kuri et al., 2011).
- These domains have ADP-ribose-1?-phosphatase (ADRP) activity and/or bind poly (ADP-ribose), poly(A) or poly(G).
- Macrodomain-related ADRP activities may be involved in viral escape from the innate immune responses.
- Mutants of SARS-CoV and human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) have been developed.
- These mutants with ADRP-deficient macrodomains had higher sensitivity to the antiviral activities of interferon-? (Kuri et al., 2011).
- In addition, the SARS-CoV could block interferon (IFN)-dependent signaling pathways.
- The pathways are the primary steps of antiviral responses (Wathelet et al., 2007).
- The SARS-CoV nonstructural protein 1 (nsp1) may be a virulence and pathogenic factor that supports viral replication.
- Expression of nsp1 may block IFN-dependent signaling (Wathelet et al., 2007).
- The viral protein nsp1 may be a potential antiviral drug target.
References:
Kuri, T., Eriksson, K. K., Putics, A., Z