Targeting the Receptor-Binding Motif of SARS-CoV-2 with D-Peptides Mimicking the ACE2 Binding Helix: Lessons for Inhibiting Omicron and Future Variants of Concern.
J Chem Inf Model
; 62(15): 3618-3626, 2022 08 08.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1960220
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world, with several new variants emerging, particularly those of concern (VOCs). Omicron (B.1.1.529), a recent VOC with many mutations in the spike protein's receptor-binding domain (RBD), has attracted a great deal of scientific and public interest. We previously developed two D-peptide inhibitors for the infection of the original SARS-CoV-2 and its VOCs, alpha and beta, in vitro. Here, we demonstrated that Covid3 and Covid_extended_1 maintained their high-affinity binding (29.4-31.3 nM) to the omicron RBD. Both D-peptides blocked the omicron variant in vitro infection with IC50s of 3.13 and 5.56 µM, respectively. We predicted that Covid3 shares a larger overlapping binding region with the ACE2 binding motif than different classes of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. We envisioned the design of D-peptide inhibitors targeting the receptor-binding motif as the most promising approach for inhibiting current and future VOCs of SARS-CoV-2, given that the ACE2 binding interface is more limited to tolerate mutations than most of the RBD's surface.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Topics:
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Chem Inf Model
Journal subject:
Medical Informatics
/
Chemistry
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Acs.jcim.2c00500
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