Ligand and structure based virtual screening strategies for hit-finding and optimization of hepatitis C virus (HCV) inhibitors.

Virtual Screening (VS) has experienced increased attention into the recent years due to the large datasets made available, the development of advanced VS techniques and the encouraging fact that VS has contributed to the discovery of several compounds that have either reached the market or entered clinical trials. Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) nonstructural protein 5B (NS5B) has become an attractive target for the development of antiviral drugs and many small molecules have been explored as possible HCV NS5B inhibitors. In parallel with experimental practices, VS can serve as a valuable tool in the identification of novel effective inhibitors. Different techniques and workflows have been reported in literature with the goal to prioritize possible potent hits. In this context, different virtual screening strategies have been deployed for the identification of novel Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) inhibitors. This work reviews recent applications of virtual screening in an effort to identify novel potent HCV inhibitors.