Replication of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (SARS-CoV) requires proteolytic processing of the replicase polyprotein by two viral cysteine proteases, a chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) and a papain-like protease (PLpro). These proteases are important targets for development of antiviral drugs that would inhibit viral replication and reduce mortality associated with outbreaks of SARS-CoV. PLpro is a cysteine protease located within the non-structural protein 3 (NS3) section of the viral polypeptide. PLPro activity is required to process the viral polyprotein into functional, mature subunits, specifically, PLPro cleaves a site at the amino-terminus of the viral replicase region. In addition to its role in viral protein maturation, PLPro possesses a deubiquitinating and deISGylating activity. In vivo, this protease antagonizes innate immunity by inhibiting IRF3-induced production of type I interferons.
