UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

Viruses have the ability to spread rapidly because the proteins and enzymes from the host cell help in the development of viruses. Although there are many vaccines that can prevent some viruses from infecting the body, the antiviral drugs today have not been effective in combating viruses from the start of spreading. This is due to the fact that the processes inside a virus are still being studied. However, host proteins proved to be valuable factors responsible for viral replication and spreading. It was found that certain functions such as capsid formation of the virus utilized a biochemical pathway that involved host proteins and some proteins of the host cell were evolutionarily conserved. When the important host proteins were altered, or removed the viruses weren’t able to replicate as effectively. It was concluded that targeting the host proteins had a significant effect in viral replication. This approach can stop viral replication from the start, create less viral resistance, and help find new antiviral drugs that work for many different types of viruses.  This review will analyze five research articles about protein interactions in viruses and how monitoring the proteins and biochemical pathways can lead to the discovery of druggable targets during development. The purpose of this review is to explore how targeting the factors that enable viruses to spread can allow the discovery of new antiviral drugs.