Use of a pharmacophore model to discover a new class of influenza endonuclease inhibitors.

Data from both our own and literature studies of the biochemistry and inhibition of influenza virus endonuclease was combined with data on the mechanism of action and the likely active site mechanism to propose a pharmacophore. The pharmacophore was used to design a novel structural class of inhibitors, some of which were found to have activities similar to that of known influenza endonuclease inhibitors and were also antiviral in cell culture.