Gain-of-function assay for SARS-CoV-2 M pro inhibition in living cells

Seyad Arad Moghadasi; Jordan T Becker; Christopher Belica; Chloe Wick; William L Brown; Reuben S Harris

doi:10.1101/2020.11.09.375139

Gain-of-function assay for SARS-CoV-2 M ^pro inhibition in living cells

bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2020 Nov 9:2020.11.09.375139. doi: 10.1101/2020.11.09.375139.

Authors

Seyad Arad Moghadasi^{1

2

3}, Jordan T Becker^{1

2

3}, Christopher Belica^{1

2

3}, Chloe Wick^{1

2

3}, William L Brown^{1

2

3}, Reuben S Harris^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 55455.
² Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 55455.
³ Institute for Molecular Virology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 55455.
⁴ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 55455.

Abstract

The main protease, M ^pro , of SARS-CoV-2 is required to cleave the viral polyprotein into precise functional units for virus replication and pathogenesis. Here we demonstrate a quantitative reporter for M ^pro function in living cells, in which protease inhibition by genetic or chemical methods results in strong eGFP fluorescence. This robust gain-of-function system readily distinguishes between inhibitor potencies and can be scaled-up to high-throughput platforms for drug testing.

Publication types

Preprint

Abstract

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