Structure-Guided Design of Potent Coronavirus Inhibitors with a 2-Pyrrolidone Scaffold: Biochemical, Crystallographic, and Virological Studies.
Dampalla, C.S., Kim, Y., Zabiegala, A., Howard, D.J., Nguyen, H.N., Madden, T.K., Thurman, H.A., Cooper, A., Liu, L., Battaile, K.P., Lovell, S., Chang, K.O., Groutas, W.C.(2024) J Med Chem 67: 11937-11956
- PubMed: 38953866 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c00551
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
9ASV, 9ASW, 9ASY, 9ASZ, 9AT0, 9AT1, 9AT3, 9AT4, 9AT5, 9AT6, 9AT7, 9ATA, 9ATD, 9ATE, 9ATF, 9ATG, 9ATH, 9ATI, 9ATJ, 9ATS, 9ATT - PubMed Abstract: 
Zoonotic coronaviruses are known to produce severe infections in humans and have been the cause of significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. SARS-CoV-2 was the largest and latest contributor of fatal cases, even though MERS-CoV has the highest case-fatality ratio among zoonotic coronaviruses. These infections pose a high risk to public health worldwide warranting efforts for the expeditious discovery of antivirals. Hence, we hereby describe a novel series of inhibitors of coronavirus 3CL pro embodying an N -substituted 2-pyrrolidone scaffold envisaged to exploit favorable interactions with the S3-S4 subsites and connected to an invariant Leu-Gln P 2-P1 recognition element. Several inhibitors showed nanomolar antiviral activity in enzyme and cell-based assays, with no significant cytotoxicity. High-resolution crystal structures of inhibitors bound to the 3CL pro were determined to probe and identify the molecular determinants associated with binding, to inform the structure-guided optimization of the inhibitors, and to confirm the mechanism of action of the inhibitors.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 67260, United States.