Identification of Common Biological Pathways and Drug Targets Across Multiple Respiratory Viruses Based on Human Host Gene Expression Analysis

Smith, Steven B.; Dampier, William; Tozeren, Aydin; Brown, James R.; Magid-Slav, Michal

Modulation of any human host pathway for the treatment of viral infections has potential drawbacks with respect to toxicity and other side-effects. For example, although interferon is widely used to help combat viral pathogens, the treatment is known to cause an array of side-effects related to toxicity including confusion, lethargy, impaired mental status, numbness, tingling, fevers, chills, headaches, anorexia and sepsis [89, 90] . Another caveat is that some proteins are beneficial if up-regulated during initial viral infection but have detrimental effects if over-activated for prolonged periods. Thus determining the desired mechanism and direction of therapeutic intervention requires careful study. Although targeting host-pathogen interactions is a challenging therapeutic approach, there are considerable upside benefits with respect to overcoming pathogen-mediated drug resistance and the capability of treating multiple, co-infecting pathogens. Our study suggests several potential human-host proteins that could be targets of future therapeutics as well as some possible drug candidates for further investigations of repurposing against respiratory virus infections.