A Review and Meta-Analysis of Influenza Interactome Studies

Annually, the influenza virus causes 500,000 deaths worldwide. Influenza-associated mortality and morbidity is especially high among the elderly, children, and patients with chronic diseases. While there are antivirals available against influenza, such as neuraminidase inhibitors and adamantanes, there is growing resistance against these drugs. Thus, there is a need for novel antivirals for resistant influenza strains. Host-directed therapies are a potential strategy for influenza as host processes are conserved and are less prone mutations as compared to virus-directed therapies. A literature search was performed for papers that performed viral-host interaction screens and the Reactome pathway database was used for the bioinformatics analysis. A total of 15 studies were curated and 1717 common interactors were uncovered among all these studies. KEGG analysis, Enrichr analysis, STRING interaction analysis was performed on these interactors. Therefore, we have identified novel host pathways that can be targeted for host-directed therapy against influenza in our review.

Automated summary

Influenza virus causes 500,000 deaths worldwide annually. The elderly, children, and patients with chronic diseases are particularly vulnerable. Resistance against current antiviral drugs is growing, highlighting the need for novel treatments against resistant influenza strains. Host-directed therapies, which target host processes, may offer a potential strategy. In this review, the authors identified novel host pathways for host-directed therapy against influenza through viral-host interaction screens and bioinformatics analysis.