ArticleSignal transduction and targeted therapy2021
Cathepsin L plays a key role in SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans and humanized mice and is a promising target for new drug development.
Article in Signal transduction and targeted therapy, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 343 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
343 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 507 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mucosal immune response in biology, disease prevention and treatment.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2025Pooled it
- Intranasal drop of multiplex RNA therapy for SARS-CoV-2 infections: baicalein-enhanced FEN1 nuclease cleaving as a virus buster.Emerging microbes & infections · 2026Article
- Disulfide bonds stabilize the SARS-CoV-2 RBD and preserve binding to ACE2 following thermal denaturation.Bioscience reports · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 spike-armed vesicular stomatitis virus recapitulates severe COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome in mice.iScience · 2026Article
- Secreted ORF8 reprograms macrophages to enhance SARS-CoV-2 infection of lung epithelial cells.Science advances · 2026Article
- Nitrile-Based Inhibitors Targeting both SARS-CoV‑2 Main Protease and Human Cathepsin L.ACS medicinal chemistry letters · 2026Article
- A host-centric morphological profiling approach to identify repurposed antiviral drugs.iScience · 2026Article
- Recent Advances in the Design of Inhibitors Targeting the Viral Entry and Replication of the SARS-CoV-2 Virus, Driven by In Silico Approaches.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Nanoscopy reveals heparan sulfate clusters as docking sites for SARS-CoV-2 attachment and entry.eLife · 2026Article
- Translational insights into Long-COVID: evaluation of preclinical animal models along the lung-brain-immune axis with focus on Golden Syrian Hamsters.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Review
- Differential COVID-19 Outcomes Across Lysosomal Disorders.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Lock out: targeting TMPRSS2 to block influenza and coronaviruses.Journal of virology · 2026Review
- Secreted ORF8 reprograms macrophages to enhance SARS-CoV-2 infection of lung epithelial cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Human angiotensin‑converting enzyme 2‑specific benzothiazole-based allosteric inhibitor against pan‑sarbecoviruses.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Programmable antibody-based chimeric entry receptors for sarbecoviruses.Communications biology · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 enhances lysosomal exocytosis and deacidifies lysosomes to facilitate viral release.mLife · 2026Article
- Article
- Exploring coronavirus cell entry with functional viromics.Journal of virology · 2026Review
- PeptideVisualizer: A Novel Software Solution for PROTOMAP Analysis.Journal of proteome research · 2026Article
- CGM23 corresponds to a pan-coronavirus lipopeptide inhibitor potently inhibiting virion fusion.iScience · 2026Article
283 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
To discover new drugs to combat COVID-19, an understanding of the molecular basis of SARS-CoV-2 infection is urgently needed. Here, for the first time, we report the crucial role of cathepsin L (CTSL) in patients with COVID-19. The circulating level of CTSL was elevated after SARS-CoV-2 infection and was positively correlated with disease course and severity. Correspondingly, SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection increased CTSL expression in human cells in vitro and human ACE2 transgenic mice in vivo, while CTSL overexpression, in turn, enhanced pseudovirus infection in human cells. CTSL functionally cleaved the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and enhanced virus entry, as evidenced by CTSL overexpression and knockdown in vitro and application of CTSL inhibitor drugs in vivo. Furthermore, amantadine, a licensed anti-influenza drug, significantly inhibited CTSL activity after SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection and prevented infection both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, CTSL is a promising target for new anti-COVID-19 drug development.
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