A cysteine protease inhibitor blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection of human and monkey cells
D. Mellott, C.-T. Tseng, A. Drelich, P. Fajtova, B. C. Chenna, D. Kostomiris, J. C. Hsu, J. Zhu, Z. Taylor, V. Tat, A. Katzfuss, L. Li, M. A. Giardini, D. Skinner, K. Hirata, , J. H. McKerrow
This paper shows that K777, a cysteine protease inhibitor, blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection by inhibiting host cathepsin L, which is required for spike protein processing, with nanomolar efficacy in several cell lines.
bioRxiv · Oct 23, 2020 · PreprintBiochemistry