Repurposing of antiparasitic drugs for Candidate SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors by combined in silico Method

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak that is spreading rapidly around the world requires urgently effective treatments. Therefore, in silico drug repurposing represents a powerful strategy to enable the acceleration of the identification of drug candidates with already known safety profiles. The SARS-CoV-2 main protease is essential for viral replication and an attractive drug target. This study used the virtual screening protocol with both long-range and short-range interactions to select candidate SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors. The Informational spectrum method developed for small molecules was first applied for searching the Drugbank database of antiparasitic agents and further followed by molecular docking. After in silico screening of drug space, we propose several drugs as potential SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors for further experimental testing.