“Serendipity may be the best description of this crucial finding!”, says Dr. Jim-Min Fang regarding the SARS protease inhibitor found by a group of researchers aiming at drug discovery for SARS.
The group led by Dr. Chi-Huey Wong, has identified a compound that will cause suicidal effects of the SARS virus. This finding is published by Chemistry & Biology journal in its March 2006 issue.
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Wong’s team has been developing potent anti-SARS agents by using the strategy of combinatorial reaction in microtiter plates followed by screening in situ. They reported the discovery of a new class of mechanism-based irreversible inactivators which out-performed other compounds.
The main ingredient has been benzotriazole esters, which was originally considered acylating agents, i.e., an intermediate chemical produced during the making of target compounds for drug discoveries. Researchers have discovered that part of 3CLpro joins benzotriazole ester and forms an irreversible bonding state and hence loses its power in reproducing. Researchers call this effect a suicidal inhibition.
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The finding can be explored further as scientists can modify the known compound in search for an ultimate drug candidate. This is another achievement of the Academia Sinica SARS team, including Dr. Po-Huang Liang, Dr. Chung-Yi Wu, and others from the Genomics Research Center and Dr. Jim-Min Fang of Department of Chemistry from National Taiwan University.