An In-silico Screening Strategy to the Prediction of New Inhibitors of COVID-19 Mpro Protein.

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) was first recognized in Wuhan, China, and quickly spread worldwide. Between all proposed research guidelines, inhibition of the main protease (Mpro) protein of the virus will be one of the main strategies for COVID-19 treatment. The present work was aimed to perform a computational study on FDA-approved drugs, similar to piperine scaffold, to find possible Mpro inhibitors. Firstly, virtual screening studies were performed on a library of FDA-approved drugs (43 medicinal compounds, similar to piperine scaffold). Among imported 43 drugs to virtual screening, 34 compounds were extracted. Four top-ranked drugs in terms of the highest interactions and the lowest binding energy were selected for the IFD study. Among these selections, lasofoxifene showed the lowest IFD score (-691.743 kcal mol-1). The stability of lasofoxifene in the COVID-19 Mpro protein active site was confirmed with 100 ns MD simulation. Lasofoxifene binding free energy was obtained -107.09 and -173.97 kcal mol-1, using Prime MM-GBSA and g_mmpbsa methods, respectively. The identified lasofoxifene by the presented computational approaches could be a suitable lead for inhibiting Mpro protein and COVID-19 treatment.

An In-silico Screening Strategy to the Prediction of New Inhibitors of COVID-19 Mpro Protein

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) was first recognized in Wuhan, China, and quickly spread worldwide. Between all proposed research guidelines, inhibition of the main protease (Mpro) protein of the virus will be one of the main strategies for COVID-19 treatment. The present work was aimed to perform a computational study on FDA-approved drugs, similar to piperine scaffold, to find possible Mpro inhibitors. Firstly, virtual screening studies were performed on a library of FDA-approved drugs (43 medicinal compounds, similar to piperine scaffold). Among imported 43 drugs to virtual screening, 34 compounds were extracted. Four top-ranked drugs in terms of the highest interactions and the lowest binding energy were selected for the IFD study. Among these selections, lasofoxifene showed the lowest IFD score (-691.743 kcal mol-1). The stability of lasofoxifene in the COVID-19 Mpro protein active site was confirmed with 100 ns MD simulation. Lasofoxifene binding free energy was obtained -107.09 and -173.97 kcal mol-1, using Prime MM-GBSA and g_mmpbsa methods, respectively. The identified lasofoxifene by the presented computational approaches could be a suitable lead for inhibiting Mpro protein and COVID-19 treatment.

Design and synthesis of novel phe-phe hydroxyethylene derivatives as potential coronavirus main protease inhibitors.

In response to the current pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2, we design new compounds based on Lopinavir structure as an FDA-approved antiviral agent which is currently under more evaluation in clinical trials for COVID-19 patients. This is the first example of the preparation of Lopinavir isosteres from the main core of Lopinavir conducted to various heterocyclic fragments. It is proposed that main protease inhibitors play an important role in the cycle life of coronavirus. Thus, the protease inhibition effect of synthesized compounds was studied by molecular docking method. All of these 10 molecules, showing a good docking score compared. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations also confirmed the stability of the best-designed compound in Mpro active site.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.