Structure-based design of antiviral drug candidates targeting the SARS-CoV-2 main protease

Authors: Wenhao Dai, Bing Zhang, Xia-Ming Jiang, Haixia Su, Jian Li, Yao Zhao, Xiong Xie, Zhenming Jin, Jingjing Peng, Fengjiang Liu, Chunpu Li, You Li, Fang Bai, Haofeng Wang, Xi Cheng, Xiaobo Cen, Shulei Hu, Xiuna Yang, Jiang Wang, Xiang Liu, Gengfu Xiao, Hualiang Jiang, Zihe Rao, Leike Zhang, Yechun Xu, Haitao Yang, Hong Liu - Science 2020 cited by 1,608

Promising antiviral protease inhibitors With no vaccine or proven effective drug against the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), scientists are racing to find clinical antiviral treatments. A promising drug target is the viral main protease M pro , which plays a key role in viral replication and transcription. Dai et al. designed two inhibitors, 11a and 11b, based on analyzing the structure of the M pro active site. Both strongly inhibited the activity of M pro and showed good antiviral activity in cell culture. Compound 11a had better pharmacokinetic properties and low toxicity when tested in mice and dogs, suggesting that this compound is a promising drug candidate. Science , this issue p. 1331