Techniques used for the discovery of therapeutic compounds: The case of SARS

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is the etiological agent of SARS disease, which has ever severely menaced humans from the end of 2002 to June 2003. To date, great efforts have been made for the discovery of therapeutic compounds by using various technologies. In this report, we present a survey of these techniques and their applications in the development of promising anti-SARS agents.

Section editors:Li-he Zhang – School of Pharmaceutical Science, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaKaixian Chen – Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China