Therapeutic potential of coumarins as antiviral agents

Coumarins have received a considerable attention in the last three decades as a lead structures for the discovery of orally bioavailable non-peptidic antiviral agents. A lot of structurally diverse coumarins analogues were found to display remarkable array of affinity with the different molecular targets for antiviral agents and slight modifications around the central motif result in pronounced changes in its antiviral spectrum. This manuscript thoroughly reviews the design, discovery and structure–activity relationship studies of the coumarin analogues as antiviral agents focusing mainly on lead optimization and its development into clinical candidates. [Display omitted] •Coumarins are promising chemotype against the viruses.•Coumarins emerged as an orally bioavailable non-peptidic antiviral agents.•This review summarizes the design, discovery, and SAR of coumarin analogues.•Future perspectives of coumarins as possible clinical candidates are also discussed.