1. Academic Validation
  2. Discovery of SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease (PLpro) inhibitors with efficacy in a murine infection model

Discovery of SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease (PLpro) inhibitors with efficacy in a murine infection model

  • Sci Adv. 2024 Aug 30;10(35):eado4288. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado4288.
Michelle R Garnsey 1 Matthew C Robinson 2 Luong T Nguyen 2 Rhonda Cardin 3 Joseph Tillotson 1 Ellene Mashalidis 4 Aijia Yu 5 Lisa Aschenbrenner 4 Amanda Balesano 4 Amin Behzadi 3 Britton Boras 6 Jeanne S Chang 4 Heather Eng 4 Andrew Ephron 4 Tim Foley 4 Kristen K Ford 4 James M Frick 2 Scott Gibson 7 Li Hao 3 Brett Hurst 7 Amit S Kalgutkar 1 Magdalena Korczynska 1 Zsofia Lengyel-Zhand 4 Liping Gao 5 Hannah R Meredith 1 Nandini C Patel 1 Jana Polivkova 4 Devendra Rai 4 Colin R Rose 4 Hussin Rothan 3 Sylvie K Sakata 6 Thomas R Vargo 2 Wenying Qi 5 Huixian Wu 4 Yiping Liu 5 Irina Yurgelonis 3 Jinzhi Zhang 8 Yuao Zhu 3 Lei Zhang 1 Alpha A Lee 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Pfizer Global Research and Development, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
  • 2 PostEra, 1 Broadway, 14th floor, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
  • 3 Pfizer Global Research and Development, Pearl River, NY 10965, USA.
  • 4 Pfizer Global Research and Development, Groton, CT 06340, USA.
  • 5 WuXi, WuXi AppTec (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. Shanghai 200131, China.
  • 6 Pfizer Global Research and Development, La Jolla, CA 92121, USA.
  • 7 Institute for Antiviral Research, Department of Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences,Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA.
  • 8 Pfizer Global Research and Development, Shanghai 201210, China.
Abstract

Vaccines and first-generation Antiviral therapeutics have provided important protection against COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, there remains a need for additional therapeutic options that provide enhanced efficacy and protection against potential viral resistance. The SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease (PLpro) is one of the two essential cysteine proteases involved in viral replication. While inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease have demonstrated clinical efficacy, known PLpro inhibitors have, to date, lacked the inhibitory potency and requisite pharmacokinetics to demonstrate that targeting PLpro translates to in vivo efficacy in a preclinical setting. Here, we report the machine learning-driven discovery of potent, selective, and orally available SARS-CoV-2 PLpro inhibitors, with lead compound PF-07957472 (4) providing robust efficacy in a mouse-adapted model of COVID-19 Infection.

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