Heparin interacts with the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 and inhibits its activity.

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc

Department of Biophysics, School of Physics Science, The Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China; Qilu Institute of Technology, Shandong 250200, PR China. Electronic address:

Published: February 2022

The ability of SARS-CoV-2 to replicate in host cells is dependent on its main protease (M, also called 3CLpro) that cut the viral precursor polyproteins and is a major target for antiviral drug design. Here, we showed that heparin interacts with the M of SARS-CoV-2 and inhibits its activity. Protein fluorescence quenching showed that heparin strongly binds to the M protein with dissociation constants K of 16.66 and 31.60 μM at 25 and 35 °C, respectively. From thermodynamic parameters of the interaction, there are hydrophobic and hydrogen bond interactions between them. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay demonstrated that heparin inhibits the proteolytic activity of M with an inhibition constant Ki of 6.9 nM and a half maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC) of 7.8 ± 2.6 nM. Furthermore, molecular docking analysis revealed that the recognition and binding groups of heparin within the active site of SARS-CoV-2 M provide important new information for the characteristics of the interactions of heparin with the protease. Our finding suggested that heparin might have a potential role in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection through inhibiting M activity of SARS-CoV-2.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8591854PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.saa.2021.120595DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

heparin interacts
8
main protease
8
sars-cov-2 inhibits
8
inhibits activity
8
heparin
7
sars-cov-2
6
interacts main
4
protease sars-cov-2
4
activity
4
activity ability
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!