Deep Learning-Based Drug Screening for COVID-19 and Case Studies

Coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19), caused by deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. This disease has become the world’s worst infectious disease, killing about 1.05 million lives as of September 2020. The absence of vaccines and effective drugs is a key trouble responsible for the ineffective management of this pandemic. Considering this emergency situation, several trials have been made to identify repurposing on-market drugs known for their antiviral behavior. Several modern technologies such as deep machine learning are used to combat this deadly disease with faster prediction and greater accuracy. More interestingly, these studies have provided clues for the antiviral properties and are believed to help in effective control of this pandemic. The drugs identified by deep learning-based virtual screening will help in unraveling molecular mechanisms of therapeutic and antiviral properties and will pave the way for designing artificial drugs. Hence we focus in this chapter on the integrated applications of deep learning models as a pipeline for drug and vaccine discovery which has implications in therapeutic drug targeting for COVID-19.

COVID-19 Prevention: Role of Activated Carbon

Recently, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought the whole world into a pandemic condition, where the number of infected cases and deaths is exponentially high. A number of vaccines are available for this novel virus, but these are in the preliminary stage and are also not available to everyone. As the virus is very contagious, protection and prevention are the best way to survive and get rid of this disease. The virus affects the human body by entering through the nose, mouth, and eyes, so face protection with an appropriate mask is highly advisable. Combined masks made with activated carbon (AC) can effectively adsorb the virus because of its high surface area and broad functional groups. Such combined masks can also control coronavirus transmission by capturing harmful gases and smoke as they help in decreasing the spread of the virus.