"Structure and inhibition of EV-D68, a virus that causes respiratory illness in children", published in January on Science Magazine.

Summary of the article

Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is a member of Picornaviridae and is a causative agent of recent outbreaks of respiratory illness in children in the United States. Although EV-D68 has emerged as a considerable global public health threat, there is no available vaccine or effective antiviral treatment.

Most infectious EVs contain a small molecule or “pocket factor,” probably a fatty acid in the VP1 binding pocket. The hydrophobic drug-binding pocket in viral protein 1 contained density that is consistent with a fatty acid of about 10 carbon atoms. This density could be displaced by pleconaril, a capsid-binding compound that had been developed as an anti-rhinovirus drug.

In the article the authours also showed that pleconaril inhibits EV-D68 at a half-maximal effective concentration of 430 nanomolar and might, therefore, be a possible drug candidate to alleviate EV-D68 outbreaks.

Go to the article.

Authors: Yue Liu, Ju Sheng, Andrei Fokine, Geng Meng, Woong-Hee Shin, Feng Long, Richard J. Kuhn, Daisuke Kihara, Michael G. Rossmann