Some medically important viruses-including retroviruses, flaviviruses, coronaviruses, and herpesviruses-code for a protease, which is indispensable for viral maturation and pathogenesis. Viral protease inhibitors have become an important class of antiviral drugs. Development of the first-in-class viral protease inhibitor saquinavir, which targets HIV protease, started a new era in the treatment of chronic viral diseases. Combining several drugs that target different steps of the viral life cycle enables use of lower doses of individual drugs (and thereby reduction of potential side effects, which frequently occur during long term therapy) and reduces drug-resistance development. Currently, several HIV and HCV protease inhibitors are routinely used in clinical practice. In addition, a drug including an inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 main protease, nirmatrelvir (co-administered with a pharmacokinetic booster ritonavir as Paxlovid®), was recently authorized for emergency use. This review summarizes the basic features of the proteases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and SARS-CoV-2 and discusses the properties of their inhibitors in clinical use, as well as development of compounds in the pipeline.

• MeSH
• antivirové látky farmakologie   terapeutické užití   MeSH
• COVID-19 * MeSH
• HIV infekce * farmakoterapie   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• SARS-CoV-2 MeSH
• virové proteasy MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH
• Názvy látek
• antivirové látky MeSH
• nirmatrelvir and ritonavir drug combination MeSH Prohlížeč
• virové proteasy MeSH

Pathogenic Candida albicans yeasts frequently cause infections in hospitals. Antifungal drugs lose effectiveness due to other Candida species and resistance. New medications are thus required. Secreted aspartic protease of C. parapsilosis (Sapp1p) is a promising target. We have thus solved the crystal structures of Sapp1p complexed to four peptidomimetic inhibitors. Three potent inhibitors (Ki: 0.1, 0.4, 6.6 nM) resembled pepstatin A (Ki: 0.3 nM), a general aspartic protease inhibitor, in terms of their interactions with Sapp1p. However, the weaker inhibitor (Ki: 14.6 nM) formed fewer nonpolar contacts with Sapp1p, similarly to the smaller HIV protease inhibitor ritonavir (Ki: 1.9 µM), which, moreover, formed fewer H-bonds. The analyses have revealed the structural determinants of the subnanomolar inhibition of C. parapsilosis aspartic protease. Because of the high similarity between Saps from different Candida species, these results can further be used for the design of potent and specific Sap inhibitor-based antimycotic drugs.

• Klíčová slova
• Inhibitor, crystal structure, hydrogen bonds, noncovalent interactions, peptidomimetics,
• MeSH
• aspartátové endopeptidasy antagonisté a inhibitory   metabolismus   MeSH
• Candida parapsilosis enzymologie   MeSH
• fungální proteiny antagonisté a inhibitory   metabolismus   MeSH
• inhibitory proteas chemická syntéza   chemie   farmakologie   MeSH
• molekulární modely MeSH
• molekulární struktura MeSH
• peptidomimetika chemická syntéza   chemie   farmakologie   MeSH
• vztah mezi dávkou a účinkem léčiva MeSH
• vztahy mezi strukturou a aktivitou MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• aspartátové endopeptidasy MeSH
• fungální proteiny MeSH
• inhibitory proteas MeSH
• peptidomimetika MeSH
• SAPP1 protein, Candida parapsilosis MeSH Prohlížeč