VIPER

VIPER designs inhibitory decoy peptides that mimic binding sites on human proteins to disrupt protein–protein interactions required for viral entry.

Key Features:

• Automated Design: Automates derivation and optimization of inhibitory decoy peptides from protein structural data.
• Biomimetic Approach: Generates peptides that mimic human protein binding sites to competitively inhibit viral entry by disrupting protein–protein interactions.
• Structural Data Utilization: Uses structural data from human-pathogen protein complexes to identify target binding interfaces for decoy design.
• Molecular Dynamics Validation: Employs molecular dynamics simulations to computationally validate peptide stability and binding of designed decoys.

Scientific Applications:

• Antiviral inhibitor design and optimization: Facilitates rapid design and optimization of inhibitory decoy peptides as antiviral inhibitors.
• Experimental evaluation against pathogens: Has been applied to design decoys tested on three clinically relevant viruses.

Methodology:

Automated derivation and optimization of decoy peptides from human-pathogen protein complex structural data, followed by computational validation using molecular dynamics simulations.