Viruses, Vol. 16, Pages 338: Targeting Viral and Cellular Cysteine Proteases for Treatment of New Variants of SARS-CoV-2

Viruses, Vol. 16, Pages 338: Targeting Viral and Cellular Cysteine Proteases for Treatment of New Variants of SARS-CoV-2 Viruses doi: 10.3390/v16030338 Authors: Davide Gentile Lucia Chiummiento Alessandro Santarsiere Maria Funicello Paolo Lupattelli Antonio Rescifina Assunta Venuti Anna Piperno Maria Teresa Sciortino Rosamaria Pennisi The continuous emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants caused the persistence of the COVID-19 epidemic and challenged the effectiveness of the existing vaccines. The viral proteases are the most attractive targets for developing antiviral drugs. In this scenario, our study explores the use of HIV-1 protease inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2. An in silico screening of a library of HIV-1 proteases identified four anti-HIV compounds able to interact with the 3CLpro of SARS-CoV-2. Thus, in vitro studies were designed to evaluate their potential antiviral effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2. We employed pseudovirus technology to simulate, in a highly safe manner, the adsorption of the alpha (α-SARS-CoV-2) and omicron (ο-SARS-CoV-2) variants of SARS-CoV-2 and study the inhibitory mechanism of the selected compounds for cell–virus interaction. The results reported a mild activity against the viral proteases 3CLpro and PLpro, but efficient inhibitory effects on the internalization of both variants mediated by cathepsin B/L. Our findings provide insights into the feasibility of using drugs exhibitin...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research