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Sanders BC, Pokhrel S, Labbe AD, Mathews II, Cooper CJ, Davidson RB, Phillips G, Weiss KL, Zhang Q, O'Neill H, Kaur M, Schmidt JG, Reichard W, Surendranathan S, Parvathareddy J, Phillips L, Rainville C, Sterner DE, Kumaran D, Andi B, Babnigg G, Moriarty NW, Adams PD, Joachimiak A, Hurst BL, Kumar S, Butt TR, Jonsson CB, Ferrins L, Wakatsuki S, Galanie S, Head MS, Parks JM. Potent and selective covalent inhibition of the papain-like protease from SARS-CoV-2. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1733. [PMID: 36977673 PMCID: PMC10044120 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37254-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 03/08/2023] [Indexed: 03/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Direct-acting antivirals are needed to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The papain-like protease (PLpro) domain of Nsp3 from SARS-CoV-2 is essential for viral replication. In addition, PLpro dysregulates the host immune response by cleaving ubiquitin and interferon-stimulated gene 15 protein from host proteins. As a result, PLpro is a promising target for inhibition by small-molecule therapeutics. Here we design a series of covalent inhibitors by introducing a peptidomimetic linker and reactive electrophile onto analogs of the noncovalent PLpro inhibitor GRL0617. The most potent compound inhibits PLpro with kinact/KI = 9,600 M-1 s-1, achieves sub-μM EC50 values against three SARS-CoV-2 variants in mammalian cell lines, and does not inhibit a panel of human deubiquitinases (DUBs) at >30 μM concentrations of inhibitor. An X-ray co-crystal structure of the compound bound to PLpro validates our design strategy and establishes the molecular basis for covalent inhibition and selectivity against structurally similar human DUBs. These findings present an opportunity for further development of covalent PLpro inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian C Sanders
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
| | - Suman Pokhrel
- Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
- Biological Sciences Division, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA
| | - Audrey D Labbe
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | | | - Connor J Cooper
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | | | - Gwyndalyn Phillips
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Kevin L Weiss
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Qiu Zhang
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Hugh O'Neill
- Neutron Scattering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Manat Kaur
- Department of Structural Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Jurgen G Schmidt
- B-11 Bioenergy and Biome Sciences, Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
| | - Walter Reichard
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Surekha Surendranathan
- Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Jyothi Parvathareddy
- Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Lexi Phillips
- Institute for Antiviral Research, Department of Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
| | | | | | - Desigan Kumaran
- Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA
| | - Babak Andi
- Center for BioMolecular Structure, National Synchrotron Light Source II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA
| | - Gyorgy Babnigg
- Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
| | - Nigel W Moriarty
- Molecular Biosciences and Integrated Bioimaging, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Paul D Adams
- Molecular Biosciences and Integrated Bioimaging, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Andrzej Joachimiak
- Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Structural Biology Center, X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Brett L Hurst
- Institute for Antiviral Research, Department of Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
| | | | | | - Colleen B Jonsson
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA
| | - Lori Ferrins
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Soichi Wakatsuki
- Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
- Department of Structural Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
| | - Stephanie Galanie
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
- Department of Process Research and Development, Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA
| | - Martha S Head
- Joint Institute for Biological Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
- Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
- Computational and Data Sciences, Center for Research Acceleration by Digital Innovation, Amgen, Inc., Thosand Oaks, CA, USA
| | - Jerry M Parks
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
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