High-throughput screening of SARS-CoV-2 main and papain-like protease inhibitors.

ABSTRACT: The global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has infected over 109 million people, leading to over 2 million deaths up to date and still lacking of effective drugs for patient treatment. Here, we screened about 1.8 million small molecules against the main protease (M^pro) and papain like protease (PL^pro), two major proteases in severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 genome, and identified 1851M^pro inhibitors and 205 PL^pro inhibitors with low nmol/l activity of the best hits. Among these inhibitors, eight small molecules showed dual inhibition effects on both M^pro and PL^pro, exhibiting potential as better candidates for COVID-19 treatment. The best inhibitors of each protease were tested in antiviral assay, with over 40%

SUBMITTER: Zang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9871955 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature