Large-scale analysis of influenza A virus sequences reveals potential drug target sites of non-structural proteins.

The non-structural protein 1 (NS1) of the influenza A virus and the NS2 protein, which is also known as nuclear export protein, play important roles in the infectious life cycle of the virus. The objective of this study was to find the degree of conservation in the NS proteins and to identify conserved sites of functional or structural importance that may be utilized as potential drug target sites. The analysis was based on 2620 amino acid sequences for the NS1 protein and 1195 sequences for the NS2 protein.