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Biomolecules
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State of the Art in Antiviral Therapy and Viral Diseases...
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State of the Art in Antiviral Therapy and Viral Diseases Diagnosis: An Update to 2022-2023

A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Medicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 6328

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Maria Teresa Sciortino

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Biological Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Viale F. Stagno d’Alcontres, 31, 98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: herpes simplex virus; nanomaterial; cell signalling; drug delivery; cyclodextrins carriers as drug or nucleic acid delivery system; programmed cell death
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Anna Piperno

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Viale F. Stagno D'Alcontres 31, I-98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: carbon nanomaterials and biopolymers for applications in drug delivery, regenerative medicine, and biosensing; multifunctional graphene platforms with stimuli-responsive probes; nanomedicine; drug delivery; liquid biopsy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Angela Scala

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Biological Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Viale F. Stagno d’Alcontres, 31, 98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: biopolymers; nanoparticles; drug delivery; nanomedicine; carbon-based nanomaterials; nanosensors; nanotechnology; pharmaceuticals
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Rosamaria Pennisi

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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Viale F. Stagno Alcontres, 31, 98166 Messina, Italy
Interests: natural antivirals; host and viruses interaction; intracellular trafficking of viral infection; herpesviruses; HSV-1; viral immune evasion; virus-induced cell death; RNAi; small RNAs as therapeutics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive recent overview of the state of the art of antiviral therapy and viral disease diagnosis. The recurrence of infectious diseases has emerged as a major global hazard in the early twenty-first century. This threat is considered one of the most important issues to be tackled by science. This second Special Issue aims to bring together works from leading research groups and to highlight the main topics and results in the field of research in virology, antiviral therapy, and viral disease diagnosis in the last two years. We invite research papers from different perspectives including biology, chemistry, and medicine that will consolidate our understanding in this area. The Special Issue will publish full research articles and systematic reviews. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following research areas:

  • Research in virology including progresses concerning virus structure, replication, pathogenesis, and evolution.
  • Forefront research on the development of therapeutics addressing viral infections including works based on or supported by computational studies.
  • Research that goes beyond the state of the art for the diagnosis of viral infections.

Prof. Dr. Maria Teresa Sciortino
Prof. Dr. Anna Piperno
Dr. Angela Scala
Dr. Rosamaria Pennisi
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. Biomolecules 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.

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 2164 KiB  
Article
An Integrated In Silico and In Vitro Approach for the Identification of Natural Products Active against SARS-CoV-2
by Rosamaria Pennisi, Davide Gentile, Antonio Rescifina, Edoardo Napoli, Paola Trischitta, Anna Piperno and Maria Teresa Sciortino
Biomolecules 2024, 14(1), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom14010043 - 28 Dec 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2039
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has provoked a global health crisis due to the absence of a specific therapeutic agent. 3CLpro (also known as the main protease or Mpro) and PLpro [...] Read more.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has provoked a global health crisis due to the absence of a specific therapeutic agent. 3CLpro (also known as the main protease or Mpro) and PLpro are chymotrypsin-like proteases encoded by the SARS-CoV-2 genome, and play essential roles during the virus lifecycle. Therefore, they are recognized as a prospective therapeutic target in drug discovery against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Thus, this work aims to collectively present potential natural 3CLpro and PLpro inhibitors by in silico simulations and in vitro entry pseudotype-entry models. We screened luteolin-7-O-glucuronide (L7OG), cynarin (CY), folic acid (FA), and rosmarinic acid (RA) molecules against PLpro and 3CLpro through a luminogenic substrate assay. We only reported moderate inhibitory activity on the recombinant 3CLpro and PLpro by L7OG and FA. Afterward, the entry inhibitory activity of L7OG and FA was tested in cell lines transduced with the two different SARS-CoV-2 pseudotypes harboring alpha (α) and omicron (o) spike (S) protein. The results showed that both compounds have a consistent inhibitory activity on the entry for both variants. However, L7OG showed a greater degree of entry inhibition against α-SARS-CoV-2. Molecular modeling studies were used to determine the inhibitory mechanism of the candidate molecules by focusing on their interactions with residues recognized by the protease active site and receptor-binding domain (RBD) of spike SARS-CoV-2. This work allowed us to identify the binding sites of FA and L7OG within the RBD domain in the alpha and omicron variants, demonstrating how FA is active in both variants. We have confidence that future in vivo studies testing the safety and effectiveness of these natural compounds are warranted, given that they are effective against a variant of concerns. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art in Antiviral Therapy and Viral Diseases Diagnosis: An Update to 2022-2023)
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Review

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57 pages, 33088 KiB  
Review
Recent Advances in SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors: From Nirmatrelvir to Future Perspectives
by Andrea Citarella, Alessandro Dimasi, Davide Moi, Daniele Passarella, Angela Scala, Anna Piperno and Nicola Micale
Biomolecules 2023, 13(9), 1339; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom13091339 - 2 Sep 2023
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3646
Abstract
The main protease (Mpro) plays a pivotal role in the replication of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and is considered a highly conserved viral target. Disruption of the catalytic activity of Mpro produces a detrimental effect on the [...] Read more.
The main protease (Mpro) plays a pivotal role in the replication of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and is considered a highly conserved viral target. Disruption of the catalytic activity of Mpro produces a detrimental effect on the course of the infection, making this target one of the most attractive for the treatment of COVID-19. The current success of the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitor Nirmatrelvir, the first oral drug for the treatment of severe forms of COVID-19, has further focused the attention of researchers on this important viral target, making the search for new Mpro inhibitors a thriving and exciting field for the development of antiviral drugs active against SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State of the Art in Antiviral Therapy and Viral Diseases Diagnosis: An Update to 2022-2023)
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