The study found that a potent inhibitor targeting the SARS-CoV-2 main protease can be identified in vitro

Much progress has been made in the development of vaccines designed to trigger human immune response to SARS-CoV-2 (the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19)

In a new study, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory turned to an innovative, faster, and more cost-effective drug discovery technology, screening Billions of compounds were released in order to find potential antiviral drugs

Why pay attention to Mpro as a drug target for coronavirus?

Dr.

What is unique about this screening process?

One of the more commonly used methods of drug discovery is called High Throughput Screening, which involves screening up to 1 million compounds in a single test tube

These authors identified a class of potent SARS-CoV-2 Mpro-specific inhibitors without requiring a lot of time-consuming medicinal chemistry research

Screened SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitors, analogs and examples of the enzyme inhibitory activity of these key molecules

How to screen out Mpro inhibitors?

The Mpro of SARS-CoV-2 is a key component of the life cycle of this coronavirus and a therapeutic target independent of current vaccine strategies

The next step in further testing of inhibitors against Mpro will involve animal models and other laboratory safety tests before human trials can begin

In the face of viral mutations, why is this research important?

The co-corresponding author of the paper, Dr.

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Reference materials:

Srinivas Chamakuri et al.