An antiviral agent triggering the proteolysis of the main protease from Coxsackievirus B3

Some positive-sense RNA viruses can be classified into the picornavirus-like supercluster, which includes viruses belonging to the Picornaviridae, Caliciviridae, and Coronaviridae families. These viruses possess a viral 3C or 3C-like protease (3CPro or 3CLPro, respectively), which share several structural common characteristics at the active site and are responsible for cleavages of the viral polyproteins. Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) 3C protease plays an essential role in the viral replication of CVB3, which is a cardiotropic virus belonging to Enterovirus genus within Picornaviridae family. This study considers a peptidomimetic based strategy to obtain a molecule able to trigger the degradation of the CVB3 main protease. By solution NMR and X-ray crystallography techniques, the interaction between the CVB3 3CPro and the peptidomimetic molecule was characterized.