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Review
. 2011 Apr;2(4):282-90.
doi: 10.1007/s13238-011-1034-1. Epub 2011 Apr 28.

Activation and maturation of SARS-CoV main protease

Bin Xia  1 , Xue Kang
Affiliations
Review

Activation and maturation of SARS-CoV main protease

Bin Xia et al. Protein Cell. 2011 Apr.

Abstract

The worldwide outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 was due to the transmission of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). The main protease (M(pro)) of SARS-CoV is essential for the viral life cycle, and is considered to be an attractive target of anti-SARS drug development. As a key enzyme for proteolytic processing of viral polyproteins to produce functional non-structure proteins, M(pro) is first auto-cleaved out of polyproteins. The monomeric form of M(pro) is enzymatically inactive, and it is activated through homo-dimerization which is strongly affected by extra residues to both ends of the mature enzyme. This review provides a summary of the related literatures on the study of the quaternary structure, activation, and self-maturation of M(pro) over the past years.

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