( The study was conducted by researchers ...)Enzyme inhibitors block replication of SARS virus

Chi-Huey Wong is currently the Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemistry at the Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology and directs the Scripps Research lab heading the study. He said the new finding is an important step in developing a possible drug treatment against SARS.

"We have been working on the problem of SARS since the epidemic started in 2003," Wong said. "This new class of inhibitors represents the most potent SARS virus protease inhibitors known today."

The path to today's research finding has taken several years. In 2002, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) emerged in rural China and eventually spread to 32 countries, according to the World Health Organization. SARS is caused by a ring-shaped virus, known as a coronavirus. The SARS coronavirus is suspected of originating in animal populations before migrating to humans. Hardest-hit were six Asian nations. By the time the epidemic had been controlled in 2003, the disease infected more than 8,000 people, causing 800 deaths. There is no current effective treatment or vaccine.

Researchers have known since 2003 that a site on the virus is responsible for mediating proteases that allow the virus to replicate. Since then researchers have been testing protease inhibitors to lock up this site, known as SARS 3CLpro, and effectively stop the virus from infecting additional cells in the body.

In 2004, Wong's lab discovered that Lopinavir, a protease inhibitor of HIV also known as TL3, also served as weak inhibitor of the SARS 3CLpro site (PNAS, 101, 10012-10017). Since then, members of Wong's group further studied Lopinavir and are preparing it for clinical trials against SARS.

Researchers in Wong's lab at Scripps Research and in Taiwan hav
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Source:Scripps Research Institute