SARS-CoV-2 main protease

The main protease of the virus that causes COVID-19, with an empty active site.

The main protease dimer (orange and gold). A window carved into each subunit's surface shows the catalytic pair, His41 and Cys145 (plum, with sulfur in yellow and nitrogen in blue).

Structures of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) with an unliganded active site, released in 2020 (6Y84 and the 1.25 Å structure 6YB7). Mpro cuts the viral polyproteins into working parts, which makes it a key drug target.

I’m one of the authors of these PDB entries. I’m not an author of the paper that describes them and the fragment screen that followed, Douangamath et al., Nature Communications (2020).

PDB entry: 6Y84 at PDBe (also at RCSB PDB)
Released: 2020-03-11
Resolution: 1.39 Å
Paper: Crystallographic and electrophilic fragment screening of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease. (Nat Commun, 2020)
More: Technical details, links and electron density

Pictures and video rendered with UCSF ChimeraX; the 3D view is PDBe Mol*.