Chapters authored
Evaluation of Drug Repositioning by Molecular Docking of Pharmaceutical Resources to Identification of Potential SARS-CoV-2 Viral Inhibitors
Unfortunately, to date, there is no approved specific antiviral drug treatment against COVID-19. Due to the costly and time-consuming nature of the de novo drug discovery and development process, in recent days, the computational drug repositioning method has been highly regarded for accelerating the drug-discovery process. The selection of drug target molecule(s), preparation of an approved therapeutics agent library, and in silico evaluation of their affinity to the subjected target(s) are the main steps of a molecular docking-based drug repositioning process, which is the most common computational drug re-tasking process. In this chapter, after a review on origin, pathophysiology, molecular biology, and drug development strategies against COVID-19, recent advances, challenges as well as the future perspective of molecular docking-based drug repositioning for COVID-19 are discussed. Furthermore, as a case study, the molecular docking-based drug repurposing process was planned to screen the 3CLpro inhibitor(s) among the nine Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antiviral protease inhibitors. The results demonstrated that Fosamprenavir had the highest binding affinity to 3CLpro and can be considered for more in silico, in vitro, and in vivo evaluations as an effective repurposed anti-COVID-19 drug.
Part of the book: Drug Repurposing
SARS-CoV-2 Mutation Mechanism, Features, and Future Perspective
Over two years, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has evolved by producing several variants by RNA polymerase mutation. This mutation created many virus variants that five of them are designated by WHO. These are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron, among them Alpha, Delta, and Omicron spread faster. Coronaviruses (CoVs) are enveloped in positive-sense RNA viruses and contain huge RNA virus genomes. RNA polymerase controls the replication in which the genomic material is copied, and it often makes errors that lead to create a new mutation. Most mutations create a virus that cannot replicate and spread among people. However, some mutations lead to a virus that can replicate and create a variant. This chapter will discuss the mechanism of the mutations during the last two years and the future of these mutations in SARS-CoV-2.
Part of the book: Current Topics in SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19