The Discovery and Preclinical Profile of ALG-000184, a Prodrug of the Potent Hepatitis B Virus Capsid Assembly Modulator ALG-001075.

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) represents a significant unmet medical need with few options beyond lifelong treatment with nucleoside analogues, which rarely leads to a functional cure. Novel agents that reduce levels of HBV DNA, RNA and other viral antigens could lead to better treatment outcomes. The capsid assembly modulator (CAM) class of compounds represents an important modality for chronic suppression and to improve functional cure rates, either alone or in combination.

The structural and mechanistic bases for the viral resistance to allosteric HIV-1 integrase inhibitor pirmitegravir.

Allosteric HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitors (ALLINIs) are investigational antiretroviral agents that potently impair virion maturation by inducing hyper-multimerization of IN and inhibiting its interaction with viral genomic RNA. The pyrrolopyridine-based ALLINI pirmitegravir (PIR) has recently advanced into phase 2a clinical trials. Previous cell culture-based viral breakthrough assays identified the HIV-1 variant that confers substantial resistance to this inhibitor.

N4-Hydroxycytidine/molnupiravir inhibits RNA virus-induced encephalitis by producing less fit mutated viruses.

A diverse group of RNA viruses have the ability to gain access to the central nervous system (CNS) and cause severe neurological disease. Current treatment for people with this type of infection is generally limited to supportive care. To address the need for reliable antivirals, we utilized a strategy of lethal mutagenesis to limit virus replication.

Why Certain Repurposed Drugs Are Unlikely to Be Effective Antivirals to Treat SARS-CoV-2 Infections.

Most repurposed drugs have proved ineffective for treating COVID-19. We evaluated median effective and toxic concentrations (EC, CC) of 49 drugs, mostly from previous clinical trials, in Vero cells. Ratios of reported unbound peak plasma concentrations, (C)/EC, were used to predict the potential in vivo efficacy.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel peptidomimetic inhibitors of the coronavirus 3C-like protease.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and related variants, are responsible for the devastating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) plays a central role in the replication of the virus and represents an attractive drug target. Herein, we report the discovery of novel SARS-CoV-2 Mpro covalent inhibitors, including highly effective compound NIP-22c which displays high potency against several key variants and clinically relevant nirmatrelvir Mpro E166V mutants.