Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
Volume 20, Issue 19, 1 October 2012, Pages 5928-5935
Ji-Young Park, Jang Hoon Kim, Young Min Kim, Hyung Jae Jeong, Dae Wook Kim, Ki Hun Park, Hyung-Jun Kwon, Su-Jin Park, Woo Song Lee, Young Bae Ryu
Abstract
In the search for anti-SARS-CoV, tanshinones derived from Salvia miltiorrhiza were found to be specific and selective inhibitors for the SARS-CoV 3CLpro and PLpro, viral cysteine proteases. A literature search for studies involving the seven isolated tanshinone hits showed that at present, none have been identified as coronaviral protease inhibitors. We have identified that all of the isolated tanshinones are good inhibitors of both cysteine proteases. However, their activity was slightly affected by subtle changes in structure and targeting enzymes. All isolated compounds (1–7) act as time dependent inhibitors of PLpro, but no improved inhibition was observed following preincubation with the 3CLpro. In a detail kinetic mechanism study, all of the tanshinones except rosmariquinone (7) were identified as noncompetitive enzyme isomerization inhibitors. However, rosmariquinone (7) showed a different kinetic mechanism through mixed-type simple reversible slow-binding inhibition. Furthermore, tanshinone I (5) exhibited the most potent nanomolar level inhibitory activity toward deubiquitinating (IC50 = 0.7 μM). Additionally, the inhibition is selective because these compounds do not exert significant inhibitory effects against other proteases including chymotrysin, papain, and HIV protease. These findings provide potential inhibitors for SARS-CoV viral infection and replication.
Keywords
Tanshinone, SARS-CoV, 3CLpro, PLpro, Slow-binding inhibitor