{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,3]],"date-time":"2026-07-03T15:02:54Z","timestamp":1783090974321,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":58,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]],"date-time":"2021-08-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1629417600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100007144","name":"University of Houston","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["67176"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["67176"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100007144","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains a global health crisis, despite the development and success of vaccines in certain countries. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, uses its spike protein to bind to the human cell surface receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which allows the virus to enter the human body. Using our unique cell screening technology, we identified two ACE2-binding peptoid compounds and developed dimeric derivatives (ACE2P1D1 and ACE2P2D1) that effectively blocked spike protein-ACE2 interaction, resulting in the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus entry into human cells. ACE2P1D1 and ACE2P2D1 also blocked infection by a D614G mutant pseudovirus. More importantly, these compounds do not decrease ACE2 expression nor its enzyme activity (which is important in normal blood pressure regulation), suggesting safe applicability in humans<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms22168963","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]],"date-time":"2021-08-20T08:44:45Z","timestamp":1629449085000},"page":"8963","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["\u201cMolecular Masks\u201d for ACE2 to Effectively and Safely Block SARS-CoV-2 Virus Entry"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8230-4232","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Satya","family":"Shukla","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Houston, 4849 Calhoun Rd, Houston, TX 77204-5037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kwang","family":"Cho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Houston, 4849 Calhoun Rd, Houston, TX 77204-5037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vineeta","family":"Rustagi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Houston, 4849 Calhoun Rd, Houston, TX 77204-5037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiang","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Houston, 4849 Calhoun Rd, Houston, TX 77204-5037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xinping","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, 3455 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77204-5037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shaun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, 3455 Cullen Blvd, Houston, TX 77204-5037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3296-9177","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bin","family":"Guo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Houston, 4849 Calhoun Rd, Houston, TX 77204-5037, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"D.","family":"Udugamasooriya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Houston, 4849 Calhoun Rd, Houston, TX 77204-5037, USA"},{"name":"MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, 1881 East Road, Houston, TX 77030-4009, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Coronaviridae Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (2020). 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