RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Rational design of a new class of protease inhibitors for the potential treatment of coronavirus diseases
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.09.15.275891
DO 10.1101/2020.09.15.275891
A1 Michael Westberg
A1 Yichi Su
A1 Xinzhi Zou
A1 Lin Ning
A1 Brett Hurst
A1 Bart Tarbet
A1 Michael Z. Lin
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/09/16/2020.09.15.275891.abstract
AB The coronavirus main protease, Mpro, is a key protein in the virus life cycle and a major drug target. Based on crystal structures of SARSCoV2 Mpro complexed with peptidomimetic inhibitors, we recognized a binding characteristic shared with proline-containing inhibitors of hepatitis C virus protease. Initial tests showed that this subclass of HCV protease inhibitors indeed exhibited activity against Mpro. Postulating a benefit for a preorganized backbone conformation, we designed new ketoamide-based Mpro inhibitors based on central proline rings. One of the designed compounds, ML1000, inhibits Mpro with low-nanomolar affinity and suppresses SARSCoV2 viral replication in human cells at sub-micromolar concentrations. Our findings identify ML1000 as a promising new pre-organized scaffold for the development of anti-coronavirus drugs.Competing Interest StatementM.W., Y.S., X.Z., L.N., and M.Z.L. are inventors on a provisional patent assigned to Stanford University covering the new compounds described in this study.