Chapter 9: Glycomimetics as Promising Inhibitors of Ebola Virus, Flavivirus and HIV Infections

Many pathogens, including emerging ones such as Ebola, Zika, Dengue, SARS-CoV-2, etc. contain relevant envelope glycoproteins. The viruses use these glycoproteins to infect cells that express at their surface specific C-type lectins capable of recognizing the envelope glycans. The carbohydrate–lectin interaction is nowadays considered as a promising target to develop new therapeutic strategies against this type of viral infections. To address this goal, different glycomimetic ligands, as well as multivalent systems, have been developed, mimicking the sugars and their multivalent presentation at the pathogen surface. These systems are designed to interfere efficiently with C-type lectin recognition, inhibiting the entrance of the virus into the target cells. In this chapter, we have prepared a brief overview of the state of the art, including the most relevant multivalent glycomimetics developed for this aim, classified taking into consideration the kind of multivalent scaffold used.