Dengue is still a major concern as we are yet to identify a potent inhibitor,
and unfortunately, there is loss of life associated with this disease; however, the
fatalities are low, but every year, dengue is an added burden to the medical
infrastructure. In a world hit by COVID-19 pandemic, dengue is yet another serious
burden. To date, we do not have any approved medicine to combat this disease.
Symptomatic treatment to reduce the fever and intensive care facilities for critical
patients is the only treatment protocol adopted as of now. Earlier, it was a disease of
tropical nations of the world, but now it has been observed that it has extended its reach
beyond the tropical and subtropical nations. The WHO data suggest that the year 2023
saw a record over 5000 reported cases of death due to dengue in about 80 countries
across the world. These data further call for the urgency in identifying inhibitors for
dengue. In the book chapter, we have compiled the efforts made so far in the last
decade to give a DENV inhibitor. Our extensive survey of the literature indicated that
protease of DENV was the most explored target and besides these targets like NS5
methyltransferase, RdRp, and E proteins did report few molecules. The success of
proteases for drug discovery in diseases like HIV and HCV has encouraged researchers
to exploit the DENV proteases. In this book chapter, we identified varying scaffolds
contributing to the inhibition of Dengue virus and by different mechanisms.
Keywords: DENV, Dengue virus, E protein, HTS, HTVS, Molecular docking, NS5 methyltransferase, RdRp.
