Pathology

Enzyme

Proteases

Virus

Indinavir

Disease

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Biology

Replication (statistics)

Viral replication

Viral load

Virology

Protease

Coronaviridae

Coronavirus

Antiretroviral therapy

Protease inhibitor (pharmacology)

Polyproteins

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Biochemistry

Medicine

Science

Targeting the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 Inside host cells, the RNA genome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is translated into two polyproteins that are cleaved to give the individual viral proteins. The main viral protease, known as Mpro or 3CLpro, plays a key role in these cleavages, making it an important drug target. Drayman et al . identified eight drugs that target 3CLpro from a library of 1900 clinically safe drugs. Because of the challenge of working with SARS-CoV-2, they started by screening for drugs that inhibit the replication of a human coronavirus that causes the common cold. They then evaluated the top hits for inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 replication and for inhibiting 3CLpro. Masitinib, a broad antiviral, inhibited the main proteases of coronaviruses and picornaviruses and was effective in reducing SARS-CoV-2 replication in mice. —VV

Masitinib is a broad coronavirus 3CL inhibitor that blocks replication of SARS-CoV-2