The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected near 5 million people and led to over 0.3 million deaths. Currently, there is no specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 medication. New drug discovery typically takes more than ten years. Drug repositioning becomes one of the most feasible approaches for combating COVID-19. This work curates the largest available experimental dataset for SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-CoV main protease inhibitors. Based on this dataset, we develop validated machine learning models with relatively low root mean square error to screen 1553 FDA-approved drugs as well as other 7012 investigational or off-market drugs in DrugBank. We found that many existing drugs might be potentially potent to SARS-CoV-2. The druggability of many potent SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors is analyzed. This work offers a foundation for further experimental studies of COVID-19 drug repositioning.
Learning accurate drug representations is essential for task such as computational drug repositioning. A drug hierarchy is a valuable source that encodes knowledge of relations among drugs in a tree-like structure where drugs that act on the same organs, treat the same disease, or bind to the same biological target are grouped together. However, its utility in learning drug representations has not yet been explored, and currently described drug representations cannot place novel molecules in a drug hierarchy. Here, we develop a semi-supervised drug embedding that incorporates two sources of in…
The computational drug repositioning aims to discover new uses for marketed drugs, which can accelerate the drug development process and play an important role in the existing drug discovery system. However, the number of validated drug-disease associations is scarce compared to the number of drugs and diseases in the real world. Too few labeled samples will make the classification model unable to learn effective latent factors of drugs, resulting in poor generalization performance. In this work, we propose a multi-task self-supervised learning framework for computational drug repositioning. T…
The lack of recommended drugs or vaccines to deal with the COVID-19 is the main concern of this pandemic. The approved drugs for similar health problems, drugs under clinical trials, and molecules from medicinal plants extracts are investigated randomly to deal with the COVID-19 infection. Molecular docking, one of the best approach to search therapeutically potent drugs/molecules in real time with possible hope to apply on COVID-19. In this communication, molecular docking studies of 18 ligands were carried out with the three therapeutic target proteins of SARS-CoV-2, i.e., RNA-dependent RNA …
Protein-ligand docking is an in silico tool used to screen potential drug compounds for their ability to bind to a given protein receptor within a drug-discovery campaign. Experimental drug screening is expensive and time consuming, and it is desirable to carry out large scale docking calculations in a high-throughput manner to narrow the experimental search space. Few of the existing computational docking tools were designed with high performance computing in mind. Therefore, optimizations to maximize use of high-performance computational resources available at leadership-class computing faci…
Drug combinations play an important role in therapeutics due to its better efficacy and reduced toxicity. Recent approaches have applied machine learning to identify synergistic combinations for cancer, but they are not applicable to new diseases with limited combination data. Given that drug synergy is closely tied to biological targets, we propose a \emph{biological bottleneck} model that jointly learns drug-target interaction and synergy. The model consists of two parts: a drug-target interaction and target-disease association module. This design enables the model to \emph{explain} how a bi…
We report the results of our study of approved drugs as potential treatments for COVID 19, based on the application of various bioinformatics predictive methods. The drugs studied include chloroquine, ivermectin, remdesivir, sofosbuvir, boceprevir, and α-difluoromethylornithine (DMFO). Our results indicate that these small molecules selectively bind to stable, kinetically active residues and residues adjoining them on the surface of proteins and inside protein pockets and that some prefer hydrophobic over other active sites. Our approach is not restricted to viruses and can facilitate rational…
The emergence of COVID-19 has severely compromised the arsenal of antiviral and antibiotic drugs. Drug discovery is a multistep process with a high failure rate, high cost and it takes approximately 10-12 years for the development of new molecules into the clinical candidate. On the other side, drug repurposing also called old drugs for new uses, is an attractive alternative approach for a new application of marketed FDA approved or investigational drugs. In the current pandemic situation raised due to COVID-19, repurposing of existing FDA approved drugs are emerging as the first line of the t…
The main reasons for the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic are the unavailability of recommended efficacious drugs or vaccines along with the human to human transmission nature of SARS-CoV-2 virus. So, there is urgent need to search appropriate therapeutic approach by repurposing approved drugs. In this communication, molecular docking analyses of two influenza antiviral drugs baloxavir acid (BXA) and baloxavir marboxil (BXM) were performed with the three therapeutic target proteins of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), i.e., main protease (Mpro), …
Inspired by recent work on anti-covid-19 drugs \cite{2} here we study the Quantitative-structure property relationships(QSPR) of phytochemicals screened against SARS-CoV-2 $3CL^{pro}$ with the help of topological indices like the first Zagreb index $M_{1}$, second Zagreb index $M_{2}$, Randi$\acute{c}$ index $R$, Balban index $J$ and sum-connectivity index $SCI(G)$. Our study has raveled that the sum-connectivity index $(SCI)$ and the first Zagreb index $(M_{1})$ are two important parameters to predict the molecular weight and the topological polar surface area of phytochemicals respectively.
Furin is a serine protease that takes part in the processing and activation of the host cell pre-proteins. The enzyme also plays an important role in the activation of several viruses like the newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 disease with a high rate of virulence and mortality. Unlike viral enzymes, furin owns a constant sequence and active site characteristics and seems to be a better target for drug design for COVID-19 treatment. Considering furin active site as receptor and some approved drugs from different classes including antiviral, antibiotics, and anti protozoa/ant…
There remains an urgent need to identify existing drugs that might be suitable for treating patients suffering from COVID-19 infection. Drugs rarely act at a single molecular target, with off target effects often being responsible for undesirable side effects and sometimes, beneficial synergy between targets for a specific illness. Off target activities have also led to blockbuster drugs in some cases, e.g. Viagra for erectile dysfunction and Minoxidil for male pattern hair loss. Drugs already in use or in clinical trials plus approved natural products constitute a rich resource for discovery …
Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in late 2019 and 2020 comprises a serious and more likely a pandemic threat worldwide. Given that the disease has not approved vaccines or drugs up to now, any efforts for drug design and or clinical trails of old drugs based on their mechanism of action are worthy and creditable in such circumstances. Experienced docking experiments using the newly released coordinate structure for COVID-19 protease as a receptor and thoughtfully selected chemicals among antiviral and antibiotics drugs as ligands may be leading in this context. We selected nine drugs from HIV-1…
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered by SARS-CoV-2 is a worldwide health disaster. Main protease is an attractive drug target among coronaviruses, due to its vital role in processing the polyproteins that are translated from the viral RNA. There is presently no exact drug or treatment for this diseases caused by SARS-CoV-2. In the present study, we report the potential inhibitory activity of some FDA approved drugs against SARS-CoV-2 main protease by molecular docking study to investigate their binding affinity in protease active site. Docking studies revealed that drug Oseltamivir (anti-H1N1 drug)…
For fast development of COVID-19, it is only feasible to use drugs (off label use) or approved natural products that are already registered or been assessed for safety in previous human trials. These agents can be quickly assessed in COVID-19 patients, as their safety and pharmacokinetics should already be well understood. Computational methods offer promise for rapidly screening such products for potential SARS-CoV-2 activity by predicting and ranking the affinities of these compounds for specific virus protein targets. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) is a promising target for SARS-Co…
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the strain of coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently there is no known vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19 and so, there is an urgent need for expedite discovery of new therapeutics to combat the disease until a vaccine will be available worldwide. Drug repurposing is a strategy for identifying new uses for approved drugs that has the advantage (over conventional approaches that attempt to develop a drug from scratch) th…
COVID-19 is a devastating respiratory and inflammatory illness caused by a new coronavirus that is rapidly spreading throughout the human population. Over the past 6 months, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for COVID-19, has already infected over 11.6 million (25% located in United States) and killed more than 540K people around the world. As we face one of the most challenging times in our recent history, there is an urgent need to identify drug candidates that can attack SARS-CoV-2 on multiple fronts. We have therefore initiated a computatio…
Pakistan Institute of Engineering & Applied Sciences（巴基斯坦工程与应用科学研究所）
SARS-COV-2 is a positive single-strand RNA-based macromolecule that has caused the death of more than 6.3 million people since June 2022. Moreover, by disturbing global supply chains through lockdown, the virus has indirectly caused devastating damage to the global economy. It is vital to design and develop drugs for this virus and its various variants. In this paper, we developed an in-silico study-based hybrid framework to repurpose existing therapeutic agents in finding drug-like bioactive molecules that would cure Covid-19. We employed the Lipinski rules on the retrieved molecules from the…
Global coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) caused by newly identified SARS- CoV-2 coronavirus continues to claim the lives of thousands of people worldwide. The unavailability of specific medications to treat COVID-19 has led to drug repositioning efforts using various approaches, including computational analyses. Such analyses mostly rely on molecular docking and require the 3D structure of the target protein to be available. In this study, we utilized a set of machine learning algorithms and trained them on a dataset of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) inhibitors to run inference anal…
The recent appearance of COVID-19 virus has created a global crisis due to unavailability of any vaccine or drug that can effectively and deterministically work against it. Naturally, different possibilities (including herbal medicines having known therapeutic significance) have been explored by the scientists. The systematic scientific study (beginning with in silico study) of herbal medicines in particular and any drug in general is now possible as the structural components (proteins) of COVID-19 are already characterized. The main protease of COVID-19 virus is $\rm{M^{pro}}$ or $\rm{3CL^{pr…
The world has witnessed unprecedented human and economic loss from the COVID-19 disease, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Extensive research is being conducted across the globe to identify therapeutic agents against the SARS-CoV-2. Here, we use a powerful and efficient computational strategy by combining machine learning (ML) based models and high-fidelity ensemble docking simulations to enable rapid screening of possible therapeutic molecules (or ligands). Our screening is based on the binding affinity to either the isolated SARS-CoV-2 S-protein at its host receptor region or to th…
Since the epidemic began in November 2019, no viable medicine against SARS-CoV-2 has been discovered. The typical medication discovery strategy requires several years of rigorous research and development as well as a significant financial commitment, which is not feasible in the face of the current epidemic. Through molecular docking and dynamic simulation studies, we used the FDA-approved drug mezonavir against the most important viral targets, including spike (S) glycoprotein, Transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), Main protease (Mpro), human angioten…
Covid-19, a serious respiratory complications caused by SARS-CoV-2 has become one of the global threat to human healthcare system. The present study evaluated the possibility of plant originated approved 117 therapeutics against the main protease protein (MPP), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and spike protein (S) of SARS-CoV-2 including drug surface analysis by using molecular docking through drug repurposing approaches. The molecular interaction study revealed that Rifampin (-16.3 kcal/mol) were topmost inhibitor of MPP where Azobechalcone were found most potent plant therapeutics for bl…
Hunan University（湖南大学）；Xiangtan University（湘潭大学）；Central South University（中南大学）；University of Illinois at Chicago（伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校）；Lehigh University（理海大学）；Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research（弗雷德里克国家癌症研究实验室）；National Cancer Institute（国家癌症研究所）；Tel Aviv University（特拉维夫大学）；Cleveland Clinic（克利夫兰诊所）；Case Western Reserve University（凯斯西储大学）
Drug development is time-consuming and expensive. Repurposing existing drugs for new therapies is an attractive solution that accelerates drug development at reduced experimental costs, specifically for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, comprehensively obtaining and productively integrating available knowledge and big biomedical data to effectively advance deep learning models is still challenging for drug repurposing in other complex diseases. In this review, we introduce guidelines on ho…
The pandemic prevalence of COVID-19 has become a very serious global health issue. Scientists all over the world have been heavily invested in the discovery of a drug to combat SARS-CoV-2. It has been found that RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase (RdRp) plays a crucial role in SARS-CoV-2 replication, and thus could be a potential drug target. Here, comprehensive computational approaches including drug repurposing and molecular docking were employed to predict an effective drug candidate targeting RdRp of SARS-CoV-2. This study revealed that Rifabutin, Rifapentine, Fidaxomicin, 7-methyl-guanosine-5'-…
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), a positive single stranded RNA virus, member of corona virus family, is spreading its tentacles across the world due to lack of drugs at present. Being associated with cough, fever, and respiratory distress, this disease caused more than 15 % mortality worldwide. Due to its vital role in virus replication, Mpro/3CLpro has recently been regarded as a suitable target for drug design. The current study focused on the inhibitory activity of Calotropin, a component from milk of Calotropis gigantean, against Mpro protein from SARS-CoV-2. Till date there is no work is undertake…
There is no vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19. One current focus is drug repurposing research, but those drugs have limited therapeutic efficacies and known adverse effects. The pathology of COVID-19 is essentially unknown. It is therefore challenging to discover a successful treatment to be approved for clinical use. This paper addresses several key biological processes of reactive oxygen, halogen and nitrogen species (ROS, RHS and RNS) that play crucial physiological roles in organisms from plants to humans. These include why superoxide dismutases, the enzymes to catalyze …
Motivation: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by a new type of coronavirus has been emerging from China and led to thousands of death globally since December 2019. Despite many groups have engaged in studying the newly emerged virus and searching for the treatment of COVID-19, the understanding of the COVID-19 target-ligand interactions represents a key chal-lenge. Herein, we introduce COVID-19 Docking Server, a web server that predicts the binding modes between COVID-19 targets and the ligands including small molecules, peptides and anti-bodies. Results: Structures of proteins in…
Virtual screening of phytochemicals was performed through molecular docking, simulation, in silico ADMET and drug-likeness prediction to identify the potential hits that can inhibit the effects of SARS-CoV-2. Considering the published literature on medicinal importance, total 154 phytochemicals with analogous structure from limonoids and triterpenoids were selected to search potential inhibitors for the five therapeutic protein targets of SARS-CoV-2, i.e., 3CLpro (main protease), PLpro (papain-like protease), SGp-RBD (spike glycoprotein-receptor binding domain), RdRp (RNA dependent RNA polymer…
Due to SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) being a novel virus, there are currently no known effective antiviral drugs capable of slowing its progress. To accelerate the discovery of potential drug candidates, bioinformatics based in silico drug discovery can be applied as a very robust tool. In the present study, more than 60 antiviral drugs already available on the market, were chosen after literature survey. These can be used in clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19. In this study, these candidate drugs were ranked based on their potential to interact with t…
We examine a pair of graph generative models for the therapeutic design of novel drug candidates targeting SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins. Due to a sense of urgency, we chose well-validated models with unique strengths: an autoencoder that generates molecules with similar structures to a dataset of drugs with anti-SARS activity and a reinforcement learning algorithm that generates highly novel molecules. During generation, we explore optimization toward several design targets to balance druglikeness, synthetic accessability, and anti-SARS activity based on \icfifty. This generative framework\footno…
Under the global health emergency caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), efficient and specific therapies are urgently needed. Compared with traditional small-molecular drugs, antibody therapies are relatively easy to develop and as specific as vaccines in targeting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and thus attract much attention in the past few months. This work reviews seven existing antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein with three-dimensional (3D) structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank. Five antibody structures associated with SARS-CoV are e…
Emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants have compromised existing vaccines and posed a grand challenge to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention, control, and global economic recovery. For COVID-19 patients, one of the most effective COVID-19 medications is monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies. The United States Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) has given the emergency use authorization (EUA) to a few mAbs, including those from Regeneron, Eli Elly, etc. However, they are also undermined by SARS-CoV-2 mutations. It is imperative to develop eff…
Effective, sensitive, and reliable diagnostic reagents are of paramount importance for combating the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic at a time there is no preventive vaccine nor specific drug available for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It would be an absolute tragedy if currently used diagnostic reagents are undermined in any manner. Based on the genotyping of 7818 SARS-CoV-2 genome samples collected up to May 1, 2020, we reveal that essentially all of the current COVID-19 diagnostic targets have had mutations. We further show that SARS-CoV-…
The steep climbing of victims caused by the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) throughout the planet is sparking an unprecedented effort to identify effective therapeutic regimens to tackle the pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is known to gain entry into various cell types through the binding of one of its surface proteins (spike) to the host Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2). Thus, spike-ACE2 interaction represents a major target for vaccines and antiviral drugs. A novel method has been recently described by some of the authors to pharmacologically downregulate the expression of targe…
