• Crystal Structure of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease in Complex with the Non-Covalent Inhibitor ML188

      Lockbaum, Gordon J.; Reyes, Archie C.; Lee, Jeong Min; Tilvawala, Ronak; Nalivaika, Ellen A.; Ali, Akbar; Yilmaz, Nese Kurt; Thompson, Paul R; Schiffer, Celia A. (2021-01-25)
      Viral proteases are critical enzymes for the maturation of many human pathogenic viruses and thus are key targets for direct acting antivirals (DAAs). The current viral pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is in dire need of DAAs. The Main protease (M(pro)) is the focus of extensive structure-based drug design efforts which are mostly covalent inhibitors targeting the catalytic cysteine. ML188 is a non-covalent inhibitor designed to target SARS-CoV-1 M(pro), and provides an initial scaffold for the creation of effective pan-coronavirus inhibitors. In the current study, we found that ML188 inhibits SARS-CoV-2 M(pro) at 2.5 microM, which is more potent than against SAR-CoV-1 M(pro). We determined the crystal structure of ML188 in complex with SARS-CoV-2 M(pro) to 2.39 A resolution. Sharing 96% sequence identity, structural comparison of the two complexes only shows subtle differences. Non-covalent protease inhibitors complement the design of covalent inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 main protease and are critical initial steps in the design of DAAs to treat CoVID 19.