Q1 · CROSS-FIELD
Article
Author: Klingler, Andrea M. ; Lourenço, André Luiz ; Klampfer, Lidija ; Lee, Melody ; Azouz, Nurit P. ; Whelan, Sean P. J. ; Damalanka, Vishnu C. ; Hoffmann, Markus ; Janetka, James W. ; Tartell, Michael A. ; Rothlauf, Paul W. ; Mahoney, Matthew ; Pwee, Dustin ; Karmakar, Partha ; Pöhlmann, Stefan ; Chung, Dong hee ; Voss, Jorine ; Stallings, Christina L. ; Mayer Bridwell, Anne E. ; Rothenberg, Marc E. ; Craik, Charles S. ; Thompson, Cassandra E. ; O’Donoghue, Anthony J.
SignificanceMM3122 represents an advanced lead candidate for clinical development as a novel antiviral drug for COVID-19. In addition to being novel drugs, these selective TMRSS2 inhibitors can be used as valuable chemical probes to help elucidate mechanisms of viral pathogenesis. Since TMPRSS2 plays a key role as a viral protein processing protease in the pathogenesis of other coronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV) as well as influenza viruses, MM3122 and this class of TMPRSS2 inhibitors hold much promise as new drugs to not only treat SARS-CoV-2 infections but also potentially represent broad-spectrum antivirals.