Identification, characterization of the mechanism of action and development of new Broad-Spectrum Antiviral agents

One of the most unsettling lessons that the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has taught the world is its general unpreparedness for tackling a new respiratory virus pandemic by a therapeutic approach.
Notwithstanding that the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 1 (SARS-CoV-1) (2003), and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (2012) outbreaks proved the risk of the emergence of new zoonotic coronaviruses, the lack of already available and effective Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Agents (BSAAs), rapidly deployable against the new SARS-CoV-2, made it difficult in the beginning to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, as well as to slow down the spread of COVID-19.

Thus, new BSAAs that can be rapidly deployed against future emerging respiratory viruses in humans, such as coronavirus and influenza virus, are urgently needed. Such BSAAs might allow antiviral treatments to begin immediately after the virus emergence, thus gaining time for the development of new virus-specific vaccines and therapeutics.
BSAAs are compounds that inhibit the replication of a wide range of viruses since different viruses share similar biochemical pathways to synthesize their components and/or exploit the same cellular molecules and pathways to replicate in the host.

LMV aims at the identification and characterization of new BSAAs targeting either viral structures and enzymes or affecting host factors or cellular biochemical pathways essential for viral replication (Host-targeted antivirals, HTAs). We use bioinformatic, molecular modeling, structure-based virtual screening, molecular biology, biochemistry, proteomic, and cell biology, approaches to discover and characterize new BSAAs against human respiratory viruses, such as Influenza A and B, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), hCoV-OC43, hCoV-229E, and SARS-CoV-2.