New drug screening tool to fight the next pandemic

EurekAlert  August 9, 2022
Broad-spectrum antivirals, (BSAs) and BSA-containing drug combinations (BCCs) are deemed as immediate therapeutic options that fill the void between virus identification and vaccine development. An international team of researchers (Norway, Estonia) has developed DrugVirus.info 2.0 (https://drugvirus.info), an integrative interactive portal for exploration and analysis of BSAs and BCCs, that greatly expands the database and functionality of DrugVirus.info 1.0 webserver. Through the data portal that now expands the spectrum of BSAs and provides information on BCCs, they developed two modules for (i) interactive analysis of users’ own antiviral drug and combination screening data and their comparison with published datasets, and (ii) exploration of the structure–activity relationship between various BSAs. According to the researchers the updated portal provides an essential toolbox for antiviral drug development and repurposing applications aiming to identify existing and novel treatments of emerging and re-emerging viral threats…. read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE