Targeting the glycans: A paradigm for host‐targeted and COVID‐19 drug design

There is always a need for new approaches for the control of virus burdens caused by seasonal outbreaks, the emergence of novel viruses with pandemic potential and the development of resistance to current antiviral drugs. The outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus‐disease COVID‐19 represented a pandemic threat and declared a public health emergency of international concern. Herein, the role of glycans for the development of new drugs or vaccines, as a host‐targeted approach, is discussed where may provide a front‐line prophylactic or threats to protect against the current and any future respiratory‐infecting virus and possibly against other respiratory pathogens. As a prototype, the role of glycans in the coronavirus infection, as well as, galectins (Gal) as the glycan‐recognition agents (GRAs) in drug design are here summarized. Galectins, in particular, Gal‐1 and Gal‐3 are ubiquitous and important to biological systems, whose interactions with viral glycans modulate host immunity and homeostatic balance.