Recently, Guo et al. have reported structural as well as the binding energy data of the particular interactions between the
cleavage sites of hemagglutinin and serine proteases, trypsin and furin, using molecular docking approach. Due to a wrong
assignment of protonation state on the histidine, one of the catalytic triad in the active site of both enzymes, their docking
results are contradictory with the fundamental principle and previous theoretical studies of the known cleavage mechanism
in serine proteases.
Keywords: Catalytic triad – Cleavage mechanism – Serine proteases – Trypsin – Furin
Authors’ address: S. Hannongbua, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Phayathai Road, Patumwan,
Bangkok 10330, Thailand