Ebola virus: A gap in drug design and discovery - experimental and computational perspective

Abstract

The Ebola virus (EboV), formally known as the Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is an acute viral syndrome causing sporadic outbreaks that have ravaged West Africa. Due to its extreme virulence and highly transmissible nature, Ebola has been classified as a category A bioweapon organism. Only recently have vaccine or drug regimens for the EboV been developed, including Zmapp and peptides. In addition existing drugs which have been repurposed towards anti-EboV activity have been re-examined and are seen to be promising candidates towards combating Ebola. Drug development involving computational tools have been widely employed towards target-based drug design. Screening large libraries have greatly stimulated research toward effective anti-EboV drug regimens. Current emphasis has been placed on the investigation of host proteins and druggable viral targets. There is a huge gap in the literature regarding guidelines in the discovery of EboV inhibitors, which may be due to the lack of information on the Ebola drug targets, binding sites and mechanism of action of the virus. This review focuses on EboV inhibitors, drugs which could be repurposed to combat EboV, computational methods which study drug-target interactions as well as providing further insight into the mode of action of the EboV.

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There is a huge gap in literature with regard to the guidelines towards the discovery of anti-Ebola inhibitors. This review focuses on inhibitors of the EboV, drug repurposing to combat Ebola, as well as in silico methods which study drug-target interactions. This report will be immensely valuable toward the design of EboV inhibitors.

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