Bioinformatics Methods to Discover Antivirals Against Zika Virus

FLOREZ, HECTOR; SALVATIERRA, KARINA; VERA, MARCOS

Springer Nature

Springer Nature

Año: 2019 vol. 1051 p. 3 - 14

1865-0929

Zika virus is a member of the Flaviviridae virus family, similar to other viruses that affect humans, such as hepatitis C and dengue virus. After its first appearance in 1947, Zika virus reappeared in 2016 causing an international public health emergency. Zika virus was considered a non dangerous human pathogen; however, it is currently considered a pathogen with serious consequences for human health, showing association with neurological complications such as Guillain-Barre syndrome and microcephaly. Then, it is necessary to get antivirals able to inhibit the replication of the Zika virus since vaccines for this virus are not yet available. Zika virus structure is similar to hepatitis C virus structure. This characteristic suggests that anti-hepatitis C virus agents can be used as alternative in treatments against the Zika virus. This work aims to determine a non-nucleoside analogue antivirals that can be considered possible antivirals against Zika virus. In this study, we used computational methods to analyze the Docking and the modeling of the NS5 polymerase of Zika virus and antivirals.