Metal binding sites, antigen epitopes, and drug binding sites are viral protein hotspots that control how viruses interact with their hosts. Like Google maps organizes and annotates points of interest on the planet, virus-M-E-D (Metal binding sites, antigenic Epitopes, and Drug binding sites) recognizes the relative locations of individual hotspots of viral proteins, and depicts a collection of maps upon which newly-characterized functional sites can be marked as they are being discovered. While we define drug as small molecule compounds collected by the DrugBank database, other small molecules binders observed in complex viral protein structures were also cataloged.

VirusMED's rich set of annotation tags about virus species, strains, hosts, proteins, metal ions, specific antibodies, and FDA approved drugs permits fast screening of viral protein hotspots tailored to a particular research problem. VirusMED connects a reliable structural resource and a custom-built virus search engine, laying a foundation for the rational design of preventative and therapeutic agents targeting viral infections.

Cite us: Zhang H, Chen P, Ma H, Woińska M, Liu D, Cooper DR, Peng G, Peng Y, Deng L, Minor W, Zheng H (2021) VirusMED: an atlas of hotspots of viral proteins. IUCr J. 8(6):931-942.

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