Identification of Key Interactions Between SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease and Inhibitor Drug Candidates
Preprint submitted on 20.03.2020, 12:10 and posted on 23.03.2020, 20:27 by Ryunosuke Yoshino Nobuaki Yasuo Masakazu Sekijima
The number of cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (COVID-19) has reached over 114,000. SARS-CoV-2 caused a pandemic in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and is rapidly spreading globally. It has been reported that peptide-like anti-HIV-1 drugs are effective against SARS-CoV Main protease (Mpro). Due to the close phylogenetic relationship between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, their main proteases share many structural and functional features. Thus, these drugs are also regarded as potential drug candidates targeting SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. However, the mechanism of action of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro at the atomic-level is unknown.