In silico screening and testing of FDA approved small molecules to block SARS-CoV-2 entry to the host cell by inhibiting Spike protein cleavage

Ozdemir, E. S.; Le, H. H.; Yildirim, A.; Ranganathan, S. V.

doi:10.1101/2022.03.07.483324

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.03.07.483324

In silico screening and testing of FDA approved small molecules to block SARS-CoV-2 entry to the host cell by inhibiting Spike protein cleavage

Ozdemir, E. S.·Le, H. H.·Yildirim, A.·Ranganathan, S. V.

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, but it is still active. The development of an effective vaccine reduced the number of deaths; however, a treatment is still needed. Here, we aimed to inhibit viral entry to the host cell by inhibiting Spike (S) protein cleavage by several proteases. We develop a computational pipeline to repurpose FDA-approved drugs to inhibit protease activity and thus prevent S protein cleavage. We tested some of our drug candidates and demonstrated a decrease in protease activity. We believe our pipeline will be beneficial in identifying a drug regimen for COVID-19 patients.

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Ozdemir, E. S., Le, H. H., Yildirim, A., Ranganathan, S. V.. 2022-03-07. In silico screening and testing of FDA approved small molecules to block SARS-CoV-2 entry to the host cell by inhibiting Spike protein cleavage. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.07.483324

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