Human respiratory viruses pose devastating threats on public health and the economy as demonstrated by the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 encodes two cysteine proteases, main protease (M Pro ) and papain-like protease (PL Pro ), which are responsible for cleaving 11 and 3 sites respectively along the viral polyprotein and enable infection. Considerable research efforts have been made to establish inhibitors for these viral proteases, resulting in several clinically available therapeutics including nirmatrelvir . Despite these important medicines providing therapeutic benefit, there is a concern for the development of antiviral resistance as well as the emergence of other pandemic threat respiratory viruses . Accordingly, respiratory antiviral agents (prophylactics and/or therapeutics) targeting human enzymes which mediate viral infection pathways and are less prone to resistance could serve as a first line of defense and mitigate the spread and/or severity of viral respiratory diseases.