Targeting Molecular and Cellular Mechanism of Influenza A Virus

The respiratory epithelium is the erudite barrier that serves as the interface between the environmental factors and the host immune system. It maintains homeostasis and shields the lungs against foreign antigens and pathogens. Influenza is one of the highly contagious viral infections of the host respiratory tract mucosa caused by influenza A virus (IAV). IAV is considered a major life-threatening human pathogen that potentially causes epidemics and pandemics with high morbidity and mortality. IAV is capable of infecting a broad range of birds and mammals including humans. Due to this broad range of infectivity on both avian and mammalian organisms, zoonotic spillovers from any of these infected organisms can potentially end up in a pandemic with numerous detrimental consequences for the world population. Further, the emergence of H1N1, H5N1, and H7N9 (avian-origin) influenza viruses causing notable lethal cases has demonstrated the limitations in the existing drugs and strategies against IAV. Thus, there is an imperative need for novel influenza therapeutics and a new mechanism of action to combat the tenacious threat of IAV on the world population. In this review, we focus on the defense machinery of the respiratory epithelium and its response to IAV. We also attempted to enlighten the reader’s knowledge on the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms of IAV in lung injury highlighting the potential drug candidates with their mechanism of action toward the end of this chapter.