M Shaw - Discovery of Broad-spectrum Antivirals for Respiratory Viruses
Channel: Icgeb
Date: 21/09/2023

The majority of antiviral drugs on the market target components of a specific
virus. As a consequence, they can only be used for treatment of one particular viral infection. Moreover, the development of drug resistance is a common occurrence, especially for RNA viruses. We are exploring the potential for developing antiviral drugs with broad-spectrum activity, and a high barrier to resistance. To achieve this, we are identifying antiviral compounds that target host factors whose function plays a critical role in the virus life cycle. In many cases, this function is required by unrelated viruses, which imparts broad-spectrum antiviral activity on the inhibitory compound. I will describe our work to identify and characterise such compounds using cell-based high throughput screens.