Helical peptides with disordered regions for measles viruses provide new generalized insights into fusion inhibitors.

Despite effective vaccines, measles virus (MeV) outbreaks occur sporadically. Therefore, developing anti-MeV agents remains important for suppressing MeV infections. We previously designed peptide-based MeV fusion inhibitors, M1 and M2, that target MeV class I fusion protein (F protein).

Helix-based screening with structure prediction using artificial intelligence has potential for the rapid development of peptide inhibitors targeting class I viral fusion.

The rapid development of drugs against emerging and re-emerging viruses is required to prevent future pandemics. However, inhibitors usually take a long time to optimize. Here, to improve the optimization step, we used two heptad repeats (HR) in the spike protein (S protein) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a model and established a screening system for peptide-based inhibitors containing an α-helix region (SPICA).

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase as a potential target of antibacterial agents acting synergistically with one-carbon metabolism-related inhibitors.

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) produces 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate (CH-THF) from tetrahydrofolate with serine to glycine conversion. SHMT is a potential drug target in parasites, viruses and cancer. (+)-SHIN-1 was developed as a human SHMT inhibitor for cancer therapy.