Sunshine Biopharma announces novel inhibitor for SARS Coronavirus

Sunshine Biopharma (SBFM) has developed an orally active protease inhibitor with dose-dependent antiviral activity in mice infected with SARS Coronavirus. There are still unmet medical needs for agents to combat SARS-CoV-2 infections. SARS-CoV-2 is the etiologic agent of COVID-19 and one of three types of Coronavirus that cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. SARS-CoV-2 undergoes mutation at a rapid rate, which leads to the continuous emergence of variants of concern posing a significant threat to public health. In addition, certain populations, such as immunocompromised patients who are susceptible to severe and prolonged infections, may not respond well to current therapies or vaccines. For high-risk patients, blocking early infection at home may prevent rapid disease progression and reduce hospitalization. PLpro is an alternative therapeutic target for developing antiviral compounds against proteolytic processing activity of SARS-CoV-2. PLpro is a virus encoded protease essential for viral replication and is responsible for suppression of the human immune system following infection, leading to a more severe disease outcome. In August 2024, Sunshine Biopharma published initial research results on its PLpro inhibitors library in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Sunshine Biopharma’s current lead compound was recently found to be active at sub-micromolar concentrations against PLpro and exhibited antiviral activity in SRAS-CoV-2 infected cells as well as in cells infected with several different VOC. In addition, the Company’s lead compound had favorable pharmacokinetics properties in rodent species and exhibited preferred drug accumulation in the lungs over plasma. The compound was found to be orally active in a K18-human-ACE2 transgenic mouse model and to significantly reduce virus load in the lungs of infected animals in a dose-dependent manner without gross toxicities. This research is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Arizona.