In Silico Drug Discovery for Treatment of Virus Diseases

Abstract

Viral infections have remained a serious public health burden despite significant improvements in medical and pharmaceutical research in recent years. In silico approaches for drug discovery and design are fruitful for the management of a plethora of viral diseases. Virtual screening of libraries is performed using various computational tools to search for potential antiviral compounds. For this, a rational approach is used that comprises filtration of the screened compounds using docking, ligand- or pharmacophore-based similarity searches. The selected candidates are then tested in vitro to ascertain their biological activity. This minimizes the overall cost and time incurred in conventional drug designing methods. In this book chapter, we have discussed various methods of drug discovery and design, and their applications for the development of effective antiviral compounds. A descriptive methodology for the management of some common and notorious viral diseases is also outlined.

Keywords: Antiviral compounds; Docking; In silico drug discovery and design; Ligand; Pharmacophore; Viral diseases; Virtual screening.