Adhirons are efficient tools to guide antiviral ligand discovery

Abstract

Adhirons are small, antibody-like proteins expressed in bacteria that bind to biological targets with high affinity. Since their discovery, Adhirons have been isolated against over 350 targets, and they can be used for many research applications. However, their therapeutic application is at present in its early stages, hence the interest in developing novel small molecules to mimic their effect. We developed a pipeline for small molecule discovery where Adhirons act as starting templates in a ligand-based virtual screening workflow. For proof of concept, we used Adhirons against two viral systems: Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever Virus and Influenza A Virus. In both cases, a hit was identified from the mimics using biophysical and cell-based assays, highlighting how Adhirons, commercial libraries and structural approaches can be combined to accelerate small molecule inhibitor discovery of viruses.