Crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is changing the world like never before. This crisis is unlikely contained in the absence of effective therapeutics or vaccine. The papain-like protease (PLpro) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) plays essential roles in virus replication and immune evasion, presenting a promising drug target.

The authors of this paper determined two important structures of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro protease. The unliganded structure has novel crystal packing, high solvent content and reasonable resolution; thus, it offers a good foundation for fragment-based screening targeting the enzyme. The GRL0617 bound structure provides valuable insight into the inhibition mechanism at atomic level. Given that GRL0617 is one of the most promising inhibitors of CoV PLpro, the authors findings will aid further optimization of the inhibitor, which may contribute to speed up therapeutic development of COVID-19.

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Article reference: Xiaopan Gao, Bo Qin, Pu Chen, Kaixiang Zhu, Pengjiao Hou, Justyna Aleksandra Wojdyla, Meitian Wang, Sheng Cui, Crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease, Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B, 2020, ISSN 2211-3835, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2020.08.014

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, PLpro, Proteinase inhibitor, Crystal structure, Antiviral drug, Drug design

The Journal of the Institute of Materia Medica, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.

Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B (APSB) is a monthly journal, in English, which publishes significant original research articles, rapid communications and high quality reviews of recent advances in all areas of pharmaceutical sciences — including pharmacology, pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry, natural products, pharmacognosy, pharmaceutical analysis and pharmacokinetics.

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CiteScore: 10.5

Impact Factor: 7.097

5-Year Impact Factor: 7.865

Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): 2.210

SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 1.792

ISSN 2211-3835