ABSTRACT
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has accelerated the study of existing drugs. The mixture of homologs called ivermectin (avermectin-B1a [HB1a] + avermectin-B1b [HB1b]) has shown antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. However, there are few reports on the behavior of each homolog. We investigated the interaction of each homolog with promising targets of interest associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection from a biophysical and computational-chemistry perspective using docking and molecular dynamics. We observed a differential behavior for each homolog, with an affinity of HB1b for viral structures, and of HB1a for host structures considered. The induced disturbances were differential and influenced by the hydrophobicity of each homolog and of the binding pockets. We present the first comparative analysis of the potential theoretical inhibitory effect of both avermectins on biomolecules associated with COVID-19, and suggest that ivermectin through its homologs, has a multiobjective behavior.
Subject(s)
Antiviral Agents/chemistry , Coronavirus 3C Proteases/antagonists & inhibitors , DNA Helicases/antagonists & inhibitors , Ivermectin/analogs & derivatives , alpha Karyopherins/antagonists & inhibitors , beta Karyopherins/antagonists & inhibitors , Animals , Antiviral Agents/pharmacology , Binding Sites , COVID-19/virology , Coronavirus 3C Proteases/chemistry , Coronavirus 3C Proteases/metabolism , DNA Helicases/chemistry , DNA Helicases/metabolism , Humans , Ivermectin/chemistry , Ivermectin/pharmacology , Kinetics , Mice , Molecular Docking Simulation , Molecular Dynamics Simulation , Protein Binding , Protein Conformation , Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs , SARS-CoV-2/chemistry , SARS-CoV-2/drug effects , SARS-CoV-2/enzymology , Thermodynamics , alpha Karyopherins/chemistry , alpha Karyopherins/metabolism , beta Karyopherins/chemistry , beta Karyopherins/metabolism , COVID-19 Drug TreatmentABSTRACT
As of January 2021, SARS-CoV-2 has killed over 2 million individuals across the world. As such, there is an urgent need for vaccines and therapeutics to reduce the burden of COVID-19. Several vaccines, including mRNA, vector-based vaccines, and inactivated vaccines, have been approved for emergency use in various countries. However, the slow roll-out of vaccines and insufficient global supply remains a challenge to turn the tide of the pandemic. Moreover, vaccines are important tools for preventing the disease but therapeutic tools to treat patients are also needed. As such, since the beginning of the pandemic, repurposed FDA-approved drugs have been sought as potential therapeutic options for COVID-19 due to their known safety profiles and potential anti-viral effects. One of these drugs is ivermectin (IVM), an antiparasitic drug created in the 1970s. IVM later exerted antiviral activity against various viruses including SARS-CoV-2. In this review, we delineate the story of how this antiparasitic drug was eventually identified as a potential treatment option for COVID-19. We review SARS-CoV-2 lifecycle, the role of the nucleocapsid protein, the turning points in past research that provided initial 'hints' for IVM's antiviral activity and its molecular mechanism of action- and finally, we culminate with the current clinical findings.