MERS – A cautionary tale

Häfner, Sophia; Ojcius, David M.

doi:10.1016/j.micinf.2015.06.004

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Protection could be enhanced by combining this peptide with interferon β, a cytokine that potently inhibits MERS-CoV infection and virus clearance, both before and after virus challenge [84]. These studies suggest that the HR2P-M2 peptide in a nasal spray formulation could be applied to protect high-risk populations, such as family members of MERS patients, healthcare workers, and others having close contact with MERS patients, or in combination with other antiviral agents for treatment of MERS patients [92,93].…”

Section: Mers-cov Hr1/hr2 In S2 As Therapeutic Targetmentioning

confidence: 99%

MERS-CoV spike protein: a key target for antivirals

Yang

Zhou

et al. 2016

Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets

261

295

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction The continual Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) threat highlights the importance of developing effective antiviral therapeutics to prevent and treat MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection. A surface spike (S) protein guides MERS-CoV entry into host cells by binding to cellular receptor dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4), followed by fusion between virus and host cell membranes. MERS-CoV S protein represents a key target for developing therapeutics to block viral entry and inhibit membrane fusion. Areas covered This review illustrates MERS-CoV S protein’s structure and function, particularly S1 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and S2 heptad repeat 1 (HR1) as therapeutic targets, and summarizes current advancement on developing anti-MERS-CoV therapeutics, focusing on neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and antiviral peptides. Expert opinion No anti-MERS-CoV therapeutic is approved for human use. Several S-targeting neutralizing mAbs and peptides have demonstrated efficacy against MERS-CoV infection, providing feasibility for development. Generally, human neutralizing mAbs targeting RBD are more potent than those targeting other regions of S protein. However, emergence of escape mutant viruses and mAb’s limitations make it necessary for combining neutralizing mAbs recognizing different neutralizing epitopes and engineering them with improved efficacy and reduced cost. Optimization of the peptide sequences is expected to produce next-generation anti-MERS-CoV peptides with improved potency.

show abstract

Section: Mers-cov Hr1/hr2 In S2 As Therapeutic Targetmentioning

confidence: 99%