G-Quadruplexes in Human Viruses: A Promising Route to Innovative Antiviral Therapies

Viral infections have repeatedly affected human health throughout history, with severe consequences on the well-being of societies. While effective antibacterial activity has been reached with antibiotics, the development of successful antiviral drugs remains challenging, because of the extremely high rates of virus mutations and the frequent outbreaks of new virus species in the human population. Therefore, identification of new strategies to target viruses and the consequent diseases is urgent. G-quadruplexes (G4s) are recognized key regulatory nucelic acids structures in eukaryotic cells. The development of advanced algorithms for G4 prediction greatly expanded research in the G4 field across different species, including viruses. In the past years, increasing evidence showed that the genome of almost all human viruses is enriched in conserved G4-forming sequences, the distribution of which is statistically relevant and distinctive for each virus family. Deeper investigation validate...