Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is a virus that can cause severe respiratory illness and neurological complications, particularly in children. There are currently no FDA-approved antivirals or vaccines for EV-D68, motivating Jun Wang’s Lab in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University to look for a promising antiviral candidate. They identified a small molecule, A-967079, as a promising EV-D68 antiviral candidate that targets the viral 2C protein. However serial viral passage experiment by continuously amplifying EV-D68 with escalating A-967079 selection pressure identified a 2C protein I227M mutation that confers resistance.
Tan H, Pollard B, Li K, Wang J. Discovery of A-967079 as an Enterovirus D68 Antiviral by Targeting the Viral 2C Protein. ACS Infect Dis. 2024 Dec 13;10(12):4327-4336. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsinfecdis.4c00678
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