An Overview on Zika Virus and the Importance of Computational Drug Discovery

Abstract

Since the beginning of the century, viral infection has become a widespread problem to public health globally. Recently, the latest newcomer of the Flaviviridae family, the Zika virus, has emerged as a potential global threat to human health. Due to lack of sufficient data at present, Zika infection has become a major cause of Zika fever, central nervous system malformations such as microcephaly, severe neuroimmunopathology, fetal abnormalities, and recently Guillain-Barre syndrome. The lack of genomic as well as proteomic information keeps the Zika virus under examination by a multitude of researchers. The rapid increase in Zika viral infections has been classified as a public health emergency by the World Health Organization. Neither preventive antiviral drugs nor effective vaccines are available on the market for combating Zika infection. Urgent innovative research is necessary to facilitate the development of protective and fruitful therapeutic agents, to improve lifespan of individuals throughout the world. Thus, we present this review to summarize the current research findings for Zika viral infection and to highlight the importance of computational drug discovery in the development of potent antiviral inhibitors against the Zika virus. We also anticipate that the information in this review will present a valuable opportunity for the prediction of efficient novel therapeutic remedies for controlling Zika.