Protegrin-2, a potential inhibitor for targeting SARS-CoV-2 main protease M^pro.

ABSTRACT:

Background

SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to spread throughout the world and cause waves of COVID-19 infections. It is important to find effective antiviral drugs to combat SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. The main protease (M^pro) of SARS-CoV-2 is a promising therapeutic target due to its crucial role in viral replication and its conservation in all the variants. Therefore, the aim of this work was to identify an effective inhibitor of M^pro.

Methods

We studied around 200 antimicrobial peptides using in silico methods including molecular docking and allergenicity and toxicity prediction. One selected antiviral peptide was studied experimentally using a Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (BRET)-based M^pro biosensor, which reports M

SUBMITTER: Jan Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10412832 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature