Therapeutics: Viral protein 1 (VP1)

In vitro studies suggest the antiviral compound pleconaril could help treat enterovirus 68 (EV68) infection. In a cell-based assay, pleconaril inhibited the activity of the Fermon CA62-1 strain of EV68 at an EC50 value of 430 nm. The co-crystal structure of EV68 and pleconaril showed the compound bound the viral capsid protein VP1 by displacing a fatty acid in the protein's binding pocket - similar to pleconaril's binding mode for human rhinoviruses. Next steps include determining the structures of recently identified EV68 strains and determining their infectivity in the presence of pleconaril...