Crystal structure of Zika virus NS2B-NS3 protease in complex with a boronate inhibitor

Abstract

Zooming in on the Zika virus protease The lack of a vaccine or antiviral drugs to combat the Zika virus has scientists scrambling to identify and better characterize potential drug targets. One attractive candidate is the NS2B/NS3 viral protease, which, together with host cell proteases, cleaves the viral polyprotein into the individual proteins required for viral replication. Lei et al. report the crystal structure of this protease bound to a peptido-mimetic inhibitor. The structure reveals key interactions that probably contribute to the high catalytic efficiency of this enzyme relative to other flaviviruses, indicating promising starting points for drug design. Science , this issue p. 503