4 ms·
In brief, coronaviruses make all their proteins as one long chain and then cut it up into the appropriate pieces to form the proteins (spike etc). 3CL protease
by ImaCake 5y ago
In brief, coronaviruses make all their proteins as one long chain and then cut it up into the appropriate pieces to form the proteins (spike etc). 3CL protease is the cutting machine and Paxlovid inhibits that.
- thehappypm 5y agoIt also means it’s going to be very difficult for the virus to be able to mutate to evade this. The protease is the beating heart.
- evross 5y agoIt's interesting to learn about. Other molecules are also found to inhibit replication of 3CL protease in SARS cov-2 [1]. The UK scientific advisory group SAGE published a few months ago that combination therapy might be useful to avoid 'antiviral resistant' strains of SARS cov-2 evolving. Perhaps these 3cl protease inhibitors may be used in combination. [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01577-x https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01577-x