The recent pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 has raised global health concerns. The viral 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (3CL^pro) enzyme controls coronavirus replication and is essential for its life cycle. 3CL^pro is a proven drug discovery target in the case of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Recent studies revealed that the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 is very similar to that of SARS-CoV. Therefore, herein, we analysed the 3CL^pro sequence, constructed its 3D homology model, and screened it against a medicinal plant library containing 32,297 potential anti-viral phytochemicals/traditional Chinese medicinal compounds. Our analyses revealed that the top nine hits might serve as potential anti- SARS-CoV-2 lead molecules for further optimisation and drug development process to combat COVID-19.

最近由SARS-CoV-2引起的2019年冠状病毒疾病大流行（COVID-19）引起了全球健康问题。病毒3-胰凝乳蛋白酶样半胱氨酸蛋白酶（3CL ^pro）酶控制冠状病毒的复制，对其生命周期至关重要。3CL ^pro是严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒（SARS-CoV）和中东呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒（MERS-CoV）的公认药物发现目标。最近的研究表明，SARS-CoV-2的基因组序列与SARS-CoV的基因组序列非常相似。因此，在这里，我们分析了3CL ^pro序列，构建其3D同源性模型，并针对含有32,297种潜在抗病毒植物化学物质/中草药的药用植物文库进行了筛选。我们的分析表明，前九个命中位点可能是潜在的抗SARS-CoV-2前导分子，可用于进一步优化和开发抗COVID-19的药物。