from Qing-Yin Wang, Yen-Liang Chen, Siew Pheng Lim, and Pei-Yong Shi writing in Molecular Virology and Control of Flaviviruses:
Many flaviviruses are human pathogens of global importance, but no clinically approved antiviral therapy is currently available to manage these diseases. Both pharmaceutical industry and academia have invested considerable efforts over the past decade on finding the flavivirus antivirals using modern drug discovery. Various high-throughput compatible target-based and cell-based assays have been developed and implemented. In this chapter, we describe in details the methodologies developed for screening inhibitors against dengue virus, and the lessons learned from our screening campaigns. Based on our experience on dengue virus and the status of hepatitis C virus drug discovery, we propose that a combined target-based approach (e.g., viral polymerase, protease, and envelope) and a cell-based approach (e.g., virus infection and replicon assays) should be persistently pursued to develop flavivirus antiviral therapy.
Further reading: Molecular Virology and Control of Flaviviruses