Nature Communications (Jun 2021)

Identification of pyrogallol as a warhead in design of covalent inhibitors for the SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease

  • Haixia Su,
  • Sheng Yao,
  • Wenfeng Zhao,
  • Yumin Zhang,
  • Jia Liu,
  • Qiang Shao,
  • Qingxing Wang,
  • Minjun Li,
  • Hang Xie,
  • Weijuan Shang,
  • Changqiang Ke,
  • Lu Feng,
  • Xiangrui Jiang,
  • Jingshan Shen,
  • Gengfu Xiao,
  • Hualiang Jiang,
  • Leike Zhang,
  • Yang Ye,
  • Yechun Xu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23751-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease (3CLpro) is essential for coronavirus replication and of great interest as an antiviral drug target. Here, the authors show that the naturally occurring flavonoid myricetin is a non-peptidomimetic and covalent inhibitor of 3CLpro, and they solve crystal structures of 3CLpro with myricetin and derivatives, which reveal that the pyrogallol group covalently modifies the catalytic cysteine.