Dual inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 spike and main protease through a repurposed drug, rutin

Anchala Kumari, Vikrant Singh Rajput, Priya Nagpal, Himanshi Kukrety, Sonam Grover, Abhinav Grover

10.1080/07391102.2020.1864476

Research curated

Abstract

The global health emergency caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to alarming numbers of fatalities across the world. So far the researchers worldwide have not been able to discover a breakthrough in the form of a potent drug or an effective vaccine. Therefore, it is imperative to discover drugs to curb the ongoing menace. In silico approaches using FDA approved drugs can expedite the drug discovery process by providing leads that can be pursued. In this report, two drug targets, namely the spike protein and main protease, belonging to structural and non-structural class of proteins respectively, were utilized to carry out drug repurposing based screening. The exposed nature of the spike protein on the viral surface along with its instrumental role in host infection and the involvement of main protease in processing of polyproteins along with no human homologue make these proteins attractive drug targets. Interestingly, the screening identified a common high efficiency binding molecule named rutin. Further, molecular dynamics simulations in explicit solvent affirmed the stable and sturdy binding of rutin with these proteins. The decreased Rg value (4 nm for spike-rutin and 2.23 nm for main protease-rutin) and stagnant SASA analysis (485 nm/S2/N in spike-rutin and 152 nm/S2/N in main protease-rutin) for protein surface and its orientation in the exposed and buried regions suggests a strong binding interaction of the drug. Further, cluster analysis and secondary structure analysis of complex trajectories validated the conformational changes due to binding of rutin.

Source: PMC

Related molecules

Name	Synonyms	Genes
3C-like protease	3CLpro, Mpro, SARS coronavirus main peptidase, 3CLpro-SARS-CoV-2	rep, ORF1a-1b
Spike glycoprotein	Spike protein, S glycoprotein, S-Protein, S1, S2, S3, Peplomer protein, E2	S, ORF2
Rutin

Related interactions

Target	Drug	Type	Result
Spike glycoprotein	Rutin	Computational	positive
3C-like protease	Rutin	Computational	positive