Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2509957 | Antiviral Research | 2014 | 8 Pages |
•Coronavirus entry, proteolytic processing and RNA synthesis enzymes are attractive targets for antivirals.•Cell-based screens have been used to identify and evaluate antivirals against SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.•New approaches are available to characterize pan-coronavirus inhibitors against CoV proteases.•Antivirals against SARS-CoV may have efficacy against MERS-CoV and other emerging coronaviruses.
To combat the public health threat from emerging coronaviruses (CoV), the development of antiviral therapies with either virus-specific or pan-coronaviral activities is necessary. An important step in antiviral drug development is the screening of potential inhibitors in cell-based systems. The recent emergence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) necessitates adapting methods that have been used to identify antivirals against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and developing new approaches to more efficiently screen antiviral drugs. In this article we review cell-based assays using infectious virus (BSL-3) and surrogate assays (BSL-2) that can be implemented to accelerate antiviral development against MERS-CoV and future emergent coronaviruses. This paper forms part of a series of invited articles in Antiviral Research on “From SARS to MERS: 10 years of research on highly pathogenic human coronaviruses.”