Coronavirus Entry Inhibitors

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are enveloped RNA viruses that widely exist in the environment. Several CoVs possess a strong ability to infect humans, termed as human coronavirus (HCoVs). Among seven known HCoVs, SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV belong to highly pathogenic HCoVs, which can cause severe clinical symptoms and even death. Especially, the current COVID-19 pandemic severely threatens human survival and health, which emphasizes the importance of developing effective CoV vaccines and anti-CoV agents to protect humans from HCoV infections. Coronavirus entry inhibitors can block various processes in viral entry, such as receptor binding, proteolytic activation of spike protein, or virus-cell membrane fusion. Coronavirus entry inhibitors, alone or in combination with other drugs, play important roles in the treatment of coronavirus diseases. Thus, we summarize and discuss the development of coronavirus entry inhibitors in this chapter.