Flavivirus screening

Flaviviruses are a family of viruses that cause a range of diseases of pandemic potential, including dengue, Zika, and West Nile viruses. Transmitted mostly by the bites of infected mosquitoes, flavivirus disease outbreaks can occur unexpectedly. Large outbreaks can place a major burden on public health systems and overwhelm hospitals. While they often present with only mild symptoms that resolve without treatment, flavivirus infections can progress to severe illness and death. Children, pregnant women, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to severe disease.

Conducted in partnership with Eisai Co., Japan, and Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK), the flavivirus screening project aims to discover compounds that inhibit viral replication in flaviviruses with a focus on targeting the NS3 helicase. The project involves screening a 20,000-compound Eisai proprietary collection against both dengue and Zika viruses. This library includes subsets enriched with compounds chosen through machine learning-driven docking and ligand-binding affinity predictions for DENV/ZIKV NS3 helicase, as well as another subset based on chemical diversity to maximize the chance of finding inhibitors that act through alternative targets.

Project updates