Ginkgolic acid and anacardic acid are reversible inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 3-chymotrypsin-like protease

Because of the emerging variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in different regions of the world, the battle with infectious coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been seesawing. Therefore, the identification of antiviral drugs is of particular importance. In order to rapidly identify inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL(pro)), an enzyme essential for viral replication, we combined the fluorescence polarization (FP) technique with biotin-avidin system (BAS) and developed a novel sandwich-like FP screening assay. Through high-throughput screening, two hits of 3CL(pro) inhibitors, ginkgolic acid (GA) and anacardic acid (AA) were identified, which showed IC(50) values of 11.29 ± 0.48 and 12.19 ± 0.50 μM, respectively. Their binding modes were evaluated by HPLC-Q-TOF–MS. There was no mass increase detected for SARS-CoV-2 3CL(pro) incubated with either GA or AA, indicating the absence of covalent adducts. The kinetic analysis clearly demonstrated that both GA and AA inhibit SARS-CoV-2 3CL(pro) via reversible and mixed-inhibition manner. Our results argue against conclusion that GA and AA act as irreversible and covalent inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 3CL(pro), which is based on the studies by Chen et al.