
Helicases are motor proteins that unwind a double-stranded (ds) nucleic acid into two single-stranded (ss) nucleic acids using energy derived from NTP. Helicase (Nsp13) of Severe acute respiratory Coronavirus 2 is the most conserved non-structural protein within the coronavirus family and is critical for viral replication. The functional relevance of helicases activities indicates that inhibition of helicase is potentially important for developing therapeutic agents.