Overview:

A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a global COVID-19 pandemic of respiratory disease in 2020 (1). RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) is an enzyme that is crucial to life cycle of RNA viruses including coronaviruses (2). RdRp catalyzes the synthesis of viral RNA, thereby playing a central role in the replication and transcription cycle of COVID-19 viruses, possibly in complex with nsp7 and nsp8 (3). Therefore, RdRp is a prime target for nucleotide analog antiviral inhibitors, such as remedesivir, for development of new antiviral therapeutics (4).

Gene Aliases:

nsp12

Genbank Number:

QHD43415

References:

1. Zhou P, et al: A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. 2020, 579:270-89

2. Subissi L, et al: One severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus protein complex integrates processive RNA polymerase and exonuclease activities. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2014, 111: E3900–E3909.

3. Gao Y, et al: Structure of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase from COVID-19 virus. Science. 2020, 368: 779-782.

4. Wang M, et al: Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro. Cell Res. 2020, 30:269–271.