ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has caused over 900,000 deaths worldwide as of September 2020, and effective medicines are urgently needed. Lopinavir was identified as an inhibitor of the HIV protease, and a lopinavir-ritonavir combination therapy was reported to be beneficial for the treatment of SARS and MERS. However, recent clinical tests could not prove that lopinavir-ritonavir therapy was an effective treatment for COVID-19. In this report, we examined the effect of lopinavir and ritonavir to the activity of the purified main protease (Mpro) protein of SARS- CoV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19. Unexpectedly, lopinavir and ritonavir did not inhibit Mpro activity. These results will aid the drug candidate selection for ongoing and future COVID-19 clinical trials.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Abbreviations
- COVID-19
- the 2019 novel coronavirus disease
- SARS-CoV-2
- severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
- Mpro
- main protease,
- EGCG
- (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate