Natural products inhibiting key Zika virus replication proteins

Dra Melina Mottin has been working on the OpenZika Project since 2016. The main goal of the project is to prioritize new compounds against Zika virus proteins that act in the viral replication process, through computational strategies. The OpenZika Project is a global research collaboration with Word Community Grid of IBM, led by Dr. Carolina Horta Andrade at the Federal University of Goiás. Dra Melina will talk about some natural products prioritized by target-based virtual screening and machine learning modelling. The compounds were validated through enzymatic and cellular assays and some hits inhibit ZIKV protease, helicase and polymerase proteins.