Abstract
Zinc deficiency is linked to poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients while clinical trials with Zinc demonstrate better clinical outcome. The molecular target and mechanistic details of anti-coronaviral (SARS-CoV2) activity of Zinc remain obscure. We show that ionic Zinc not only inhibits SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) with nanomolar affinity, but also viral replication. We present the first crystal structure of Mpro-Zinc2+ complex at 1.9 Å and provide the structural basis of viral replication inhibition.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Copyright
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Posted June 15, 2021.
