Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (
SARS-CoV-2) is the pathogen that caused the global COVID-19 outbreak. The 3C-like
protease (3CLpro) of
SARS-CoV-2 plays a key
role in
virus replication and has become an ideal target for
antiviral drug design. In this
paper, we
report the validation and use of bioluminescence resonance
energy transfer (BRET)
technology to establish a
cell-based assay for
screening for
SARS-CoV-2 virus 3CL
protease inhibitors. The results show that the
method is able to monitor the cleavage
efficiency of 3CL
protease with good reproducibility (Z' factor is 0.59), and is consistent with
antiviral activity
analysis in
cell culture. This
work demonstrates that this
method can be applied to the
screening and evaluation of 3CL
protease inhibitors, providing a powerful tool for the development of
new drugs.