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Updated: Nov 26, 2025

Author Spotlight: Advancing Antiviral Strategies Through Novel Immunocapture and Mass Spectrometry Techniques
Published on: January 12, 2024
The main protease and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase are two prime targets for SARS-CoV-2
Zhenming Jin1, Haofeng Wang2, Yinkai Duan3
1Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China; School of Life Sciences and School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Abstract:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), poses an unprecedented global health crisis. It is particularly urgent to develop clinically effective therapies to contain the pandemic. The main protease (Mpro) and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP), which are responsible for the viral polyprotein proteolytic process and viral genome replication and transcription, respectively, are two attractive drug targets for SARS-CoV-2. This review summarizes up-to-date progress in the structural and pharmacological aspects of those two key targets above. Different classes of inhibitors individually targeting Mpro and RdRP are discussed, which could promote drug development to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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