Finding Potential Inhibitors of COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by virus SARS-CoV-2 that spread globally due to its high contagious nature and became an ongoing pandemic. The lack of vaccines and drugs to treat infected patients is a great problem in the fight against this pandemic. Molecular docking is one of the best approaches to search for potential drugs in real time with possibilities to apply at COVID-19. In this experiment, molecular docking studies of fourteen ligands were carried out with three important proteins of SARS-CoV-2, i.e. main protease, ACE2, and spike glycoprotein. From the obtained results, we observed that many of the tested molecules showed better dock score in comparison to remdesivir and dexamethasone, drugs that are claimed to be effective against COVID-19. Combining the dock score and other properties, we believe that auranetin can be further explored for potential use against COVID-19.