2. Academic Validation
  3. Design and synthesis of isatin derivatives as effective SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitors

Design and synthesis of isatin derivatives as effective SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease inhibitors

  • Chem Biol Drug Des. 2023 Oct;102(4):857-869. doi: 10.1111/cbdd.14296.
Hong-Lei Bao 1,  Gao Tu 1,  Qiu Yue 1,  Pei Liu 1,  Hui-Li Zheng 1,  Xiao-Jun Yao 1
Affiliations

Affiliation

  • 1 Dr. Neher's Biophysics Laboratory for Innovative Drug Discovery, State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Macau Institute for Applied Research in Medicine and Health, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, China.
PMID: 37563791 DOI: 10.1111/cbdd.14296
Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 chymotrypsin-like cysteine Protease (3CLpro ) is one of the most widely developed drug targets for COVID-19. This study aimed to design and synthesize isatin derivatives to target SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro in a covalent binding manner. Through the process, a potent 3CLpro inhibitor (5g) was discovered with an IC50 value of 0.43 ± 0.17 μM. To understand the binding affinity and specificity of 5g as a candidate inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro , several assays were conducted, including FRET Enzyme activity assays, thermodynamic-based and kinetic-based validation of inhibitor-target interactions, and cell-based FlipGFP assays. The interaction mechanism between 3CLpro -5g was characterized by docking. Overall, these findings suggest that 5g is a new potent SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro inhibitor for the treatment of COVID-19.

Keywords

FRET; FlipGFP; ITC; SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro.

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