Research Projects

The Philippines faces yearly outbreaks of dengue virus (DENV), chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and Zika virus (ZIKV). The lack of vaccines and therapeutic drugs against these arthropod-borne viruses is a significant concern. The development of novel antivirals, such as nanomolar inhibitors (NMEs) targeting host and viral proteins, is essential for drug discovery. The immunomodulatory properties of NMEs could also serve as new therapeutics during viral infection. This project focuses on developing NMEs that target arbovirus capsid protein, an essential structural component of virus particles. The NMEs could potentially inhibit viral capsid uncoating during the early stages of infection and prevent the assembly and release of virions during viral replication. The project aims to identify conserved arbovirus capsid residues and active sites as NME targets, design and synthesize NMEs based on suitable functional groups, determine the antiviral potential of NMEs against different arboviruses through antiviral screening, perform molecular docking studies on candidate antiviral NMEs with arbovirus capsid, and confirm their antiviral properties using classical virology techniques.