More antimalarial drugs that may work against ChiComFlu
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2003/2003.10642.pdf
Scientists from India sought candidates for anti-ChiComFlu drugs from a variety of antimalarial drugs. They examined the capabilities of "seven popular anti-malarial compounds as a ligand to the COVID-19 protease namely mepacrine (1), chloroquine (2), quinine (3), hydroxychloroquine (4), artemisinin (5), phomarin (6) and proguanil (7). They decided that "mepacrine appears as the most powerful inhibitor among seven compounds studied here. Other potential inhibitors of COVID-19 protease include chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and phomarin."
In Silico Investigations on the Potential Inhibitors for COVID-19 Protease*
Ambrish Kumar Srivastava1, 4, Abhishek Kumar2, 4, Gargi Tiwari3, Ratnesh Kumar2, Neeraj Misra2
1Department of Physics, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur (U.P.) India 2Department of Physics, University of Lucknow, Lucknow (U.P.) India 3Department of Physics, Patna University, Patna (Bihar) India 4
Corresponding authors: aks.ddugu@gmail.com ; ambrish.phy@ddugu.ac.in (A. K. Srivastava), abhishekphy91@gmail.com (A. Kumar)
*This research is dedicated to the people, who serve the nation despite the worldwide epidemic of the COVID-19.
Abstract
A novel strain of corona virus, namely, COVID-19 has been identified in Wuhan city of China in December 2019. There are no specific therapies available and investigations regarding the treatment of the COVID-19 are still lacking. This prompted us to perform in silico studies on the COVID-19 protease with anti-malarial compounds in the search of potential inhibitor. We have calculated log P and log S values in addition to molecular docking and PASS predictions. Among the seven studied compounds, mepacrine appears as the potential inhibitor of the COVID-19 followed by chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and phomarin. Therefore, these antimalarial drugs and specially mepacrine may be potential drug candidate for the treatment of this novel corona virus. Further detailed clinical studies are invited to investigate their potential medicinal use for the COVID-19.
Concluding Remarks
We have performed a systematic study on anti-malarial compounds in the search of potential inhibitors for novel corona virus, COVID-19 protease. Based on the binding affinity as well as log P and log S values, mepacrine appears as the most powerful inhibitor among seven compounds studied here. Other potential inhibitors of COVID-19 protease include chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and phomarin. Note that chloroquine has already been recommended to treat COVID-19 associated pneumonia [11]. While this manuscript was prepared, another research based on clinical trials suggested [20] that hydroxychloroquine added with azithromycin is very effective in the treatment of the COVID-19. Therefore, we suggest prompt clinic trials of these compounds or their suitable combinations, in general with mepacrine with special attention. Our PASS predictions may be useful for clinical trials of these inhibitors of COVID-19. Further studies in these directions are in progress in our lab and shall be reported shortly.