Title:Antiviral Compounds to Address Influenza Pandemics: An Update
from 2016-2022
Volume: 31
Issue: 18
Author(s): Roberto Romeo, Laura Legnani, Maria Assunta Chiacchio, Salvatore V. Giofrè and Daniela Iannazzo*
Affiliation:
- Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università
di Messina, Contrada di Dio, Messina, 98166, Italy
Keywords:
Antivirals, influenza viruses, neuraminidase, hemagglutinin, nucleoprotein, membrane protein, RNA polymerase.
Abstract: In recent decades, the world has gained experience of the dangerous effects of
pandemic events caused by emerging respiratory viruses. In particular, annual epidemics
of influenza are responsible for severe illness and deaths. Even if conventional influenza
vaccines represent the most effective tool for preventing virus infections, they are not
completely effective in patients with severe chronic disease and immunocompromised and
new small molecules have emerged to prevent and control the influenza viruses. Thus, the
attention of chemists is continuously focused on the synthesis of new antiviral drugs able
to interact with the different molecular targets involved in the virus replication cycle. To
date, different classes of influenza viruses inhibitors able to target neuraminidase enzyme,
hemagglutinin protein, Matrix-2 (M2) protein ion channel, nucleoprotein or RNAdependent
RNA polymerase have been synthesized using several synthetic strategies
comprising the chemical modification of currently used drugs. The best results, in terms
of inhibitory activity, are in the nanomolar range and have been obtained from the chemical
modification of clinically used drugs such as Peramivir, Zanamivir, Oseltamir,
Rimantadine, as well as sialylated molecules, and hydroxypyridinone derivatives. The aim
of this review is to report, covering the period 2016-2022, the most recent routes related to
the synthesis of effective influenza virus inhibitors.
