Issue 1, 2023

Advances in research on 3C-like protease (3CLpro) inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 since 2020

Abstract

COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 is still threatening global human health. Although some vaccines and drugs are available in the market, controlling the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus remains a huge challenge. 3C-like protease (3CLpro) is a highly conserved key protease for SARS-CoV-2 replication, and no relevant homologous protein with a similar cleavage site to 3CLpro has been identified in humans, highlighting that development of 3CLpro inhibitors exhibits great promise for treatment of COVID-19. In this review, the authors describe the structure and function of 3CLpro. To better understand the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro inhibitors, the SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro inhibitors reported since 2020 are classified into peptidomimetic covalent inhibitors, non-peptidomimetic covalent inhibitors and non-covalent small molecule inhibitors, and the representative inhibitors, their biological activities and binding models are highlighted. Collectively, we hope that all the information presented here will provide new insights into the design and development of more effective 3CLpro inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 as novel anti-coronavirus drugs.

Graphical abstract: Advances in research on 3C-like protease (3CLpro) inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 since 2020

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
21 Sep 2022
Accepted
24 Oct 2022
First published
27 Oct 2022

RSC Med. Chem., 2023,14, 9-21

Advances in research on 3C-like protease (3CLpro) inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 since 2020

R. Chen, Y. Gao, H. Liu, H. Li, W. Chen and J. Ma, RSC Med. Chem., 2023, 14, 9 DOI: 10.1039/D2MD00344A

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