The economical and societal impact of COVID-19 has made the development of vaccines and drugs to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection a priority. While the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein has been widely explored as a drug target, the SARS-CoV-2 helicase (nsp13) does not have any approved medication. The helicase shares 99.8% similarity with its SARS-CoV-1 homolog and was shown to be essential for viral replication. This review summarizes and builds on existing research on inhibitors of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 helicases. Our analysis on the toxicity and specificity of these compounds, set the road going forward for the repurposing of existing drugs and the development of new SARS-CoV-2 helicase inhibitors.

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doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.1062352
Frontiers in Chemistry
Marie Skłodowska-Curie

Halma, M., Wever, M., Abeln, S., Roche, D., & Wuite, G. (2022). Therapeutic potential of compounds targeting SARS-CoV-2 helicase. Frontiers in Chemistry, 10. doi:10.3389/fchem.2022.1062352