Benserazide, the first allosteric inhibitor of Coxsackievirus B3 3C protease

Coxsackievirus B3 is the main cause of human viral myocarditis and cardiomyopathy. Virally encoded Coxsackievirus 3C protease (3C(pro)) plays an essential role in viral proliferation. Here, benserazide was discovered as a novel inhibitor from a drug library screen targeting Coxsackievirus 3C(pro) using a FRET-based enzyme assay. Benserazide, whose chemical structure has no electrophilic functional groups, was characterized as a non-competitive inhibitor by enzyme kinetic studies. A molecular docking study with benserazide and its analogs indicated that a novel putative allosteric binding site was involved. Specifically, a 2,3,4-trihydroxybenzyl moiety was determined to be a key pharmacophore for the enzyme's inhibitory activity. We suggest that the putative allosteric binding site may be a novel target for future therapeutic strategies.