Discovery of Novel Isofunctional SARS-CoV-2 NSP14 RNA Cap Methyltransferase Inhibitors by Structure-Based Virtual Screening

Abstract

In early 2020, SARS-CoV-2 spread into a worldwide pandemic, causing more than 7 million deaths. Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) complementing vaccines and mitigating severe disease in at-risk populations remain important. Here, we used a structure-based virtual screening (SBVS) workflow to identify new SAH-dependent inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA cap methyltransferase NSP14. We virtually screened the Enamine and Sigma in-stock screening collections as well as the 3 orders of magnitude larger Enamine REAL make-on-demand compound library, which produced better docking scores and higher virtual hit rates. While biochemical testing of 145 in-stock library compounds yielded a single NSP14-specific inhibitor, 123 chemically synthesized Enamine REAL SBVS compounds contained 10 hits specifically inhibiting NSP14 with half-maximal inhibitory concentrations (IC₅₀) below 10 μM. The new compounds were chemically distinct in atomic composition from any NSP14 inhibitors previously identified by conventional biochemical high-throughput screening (HTS) and may serve as starting points to develop novel SARS-CoV-2 DAAs.