A Structural Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease and Animal Coronaviral Main Protease Reveals Species-Specific Ligand Binding and Dimerization Mechanism.

ABSTRACT: Animal coronaviruses (CoVs) have been identified to be the origin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV, and probably SARS-CoV-2 that cause severe to fatal diseases in humans. Variations of zoonotic coronaviruses pose potential threats to global human beings. To overcome this problem, we focused on the main protease (M^pro), which is an evolutionary conserved viral protein among different coronaviruses. The broad-spectrum anti-coronaviral drug, GC376, was repurposed to target canine coronavirus (CCoV), which causes gastrointestinal infections in dogs. We found that GC376 can efficiently block the protease activity of CCoV M^pro and can thermodynamically stabilize its folding. The structure of CCoV M^pro in

SUBMITTER: Ho CY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9145999 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature