Design, Synthesis, X-ray Crystallography, and Biological Activities of Covalent, Non-Peptidic Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease

Highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has infected billions of people worldwide with flu-like symptoms since its emergence in 2019. It has caused deaths of several million people. The viral main protease (Mpro) is essential for SARS-CoV-2 replication and therefore a drug target. Several series of covalent inhibitors of Mpro were designed and synthesized. Structure-activity relationship studies show that (1) several chloroacetamide- and epoxide-based compounds targeting Cys145 are potent inhibitors with IC₅₀ values as low as 0.49 μM and (2) Cys44 of Mpro is not nucleophilic for covalent inhibitor design. High-resolution X-ray studies revealed the protein-inhibitor interactions and mechanisms of inhibition. It is of interest that Cys145 preferably attacks the more hindered C_α atom of several epoxide inhibitors. Chloroacetamide inhibitor 13 and epoxide inhibitor 30 were found to inhibit cellular SARS-CoV-2 replication with an EC₆₈ (half-log reduction of virus titer) of 3 and 5 μM. These compounds represent new pharmacological leads for anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug development.

SARS-CoV-2; X-ray crystallography; antiviral agents; enzyme inhibitors; main protease.