An <i>In-silico</i> Screening Strategy to the Prediction of New Inhibitors of COVID-19 M<sup>pro</sup> Protein

AuthorMaryam Abbasien
AuthorHojjat Sadeghi-aliabadien
Issued Date2021-10-31en
AbstractThe 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.en
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.22037/ijpr.2021.114997.15146en
KeywordCOVID-19en
KeywordMpro protein inhibitorsen
KeywordMolecular dynamic simulationen
KeywordInduced fit dockingen
KeywordBinding free energyen
KeywordLasofoxifeneen
PublisherBrieflandsen
TitleAn <i>In-silico</i> Screening Strategy to the Prediction of New Inhibitors of COVID-19 M<sup>pro</sup> Proteinen
TypeOriginal Articleen

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