Computational drug discovery for the Zika virus

Few Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreaks had been reported since its first detection in 1947, until the recent epidemics occurred in South America (2014/2015) and expeditiously became a global public health emergency. This arbovirus reached 0.5-1.3 million cases of ZIKV infection in Brazil in 2015 and rapidly spread in new geographic areas such as the Americas. Despite the mild symptoms of the Zika fever, the major concern is related to the related severe neurological disorders, especially microcephaly in newborns. Advances in ZIKV drug discovery have been made recently and constitute promising approaches to ZIKV treatment. In this review, we summarize current computational drug discovery efforts and their applicability to discovery of anti-ZIKV drugs. Lastly, we present successful examples of the use of computational approaches to ZIKV drug discovery.

自1947年寨卡病毒（Zika virus, ZIKV）首次被检出以来，鲜有其暴发疫情的报道，直至2014/2015年南美洲暴发本次疫情，并迅速演变为全球公共卫生紧急事件。2015年，该虫媒病毒（arbovirus）在巴西造成50万至130万例寨卡病毒感染病例，并迅速在美洲等全新地理区域扩散。尽管寨卡热症状轻微，但公众最为担忧的是其引发的严重神经系统病症，尤其是新生儿小头畸形（microcephaly）。近年来，寨卡病毒药物研发领域已取得诸多进展，为寨卡病毒治疗提供了颇具前景的策略。本综述总结了当前计算药物研发的相关工作，以及其在抗寨卡病毒药物研发中的应用价值。最后，本文列举了计算方法应用于寨卡病毒药物研发的成功案例。