No abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) was first identified in Wuhan, China near the end of 2019. To date, COVID‐19 had spread to almost 235 countries and territories due to its highly infectious nature. Moreover, there is no vaccine or Food and Drug Administration (FDA)‐approved drug. More time is needed to establish one of them. Consequently, the drug repurposing approach seems to be the most attractive and quick solution to accommodate this crisis. In this regard, we performed molecular docking‐based virtual screening of antiplatelet FDA‐approved drugs on the key two viral target proteins: main protease (Mpro) and spike glycoprotein (S) as potential inhibitor candidates for COVID‐19. In the present study, 15 antiplatelet FDA‐approved drugs were investigated against the concerned targets using the Molecular Docking Server. Our study revealed that only cilostazol has the most favorable binding interaction on Mpro (PDB ID: 6LU7) and cilostazol, iloprost, epoprostenol, prasugrel, and icosapent ethyl have a higher binding affinity on spike glycoprotein (S) (PDB ID: 6VYB) compared with recent anti‐CoVID‐19. Therefore, cilostazol is a promising FDA drug against COVID‐19 by inhibiting both Mpro and S protein. The insights gained in this study may be useful for quick approach against COVID‐19 in the future.

SARS-CoV-2 represents the causative agent of the current pandemic (COVID-19). The drug repurposing technique is used to search for possible drugs that can bind to SARS-CoV-2 proteins and inhibit viral replication. In this study, the FDA-approved antiplatelets are tested against the main protease and spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 using in silico methods. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation are used in the current study. The results suggest the effectiveness of vorapaxar, ticagrelor, cilostazol, cangrelor, and prasugrel in binding the main protease (M pro ) of SARS-CoV-2. At the same time, vorapaxar, ticagrelor, and cilostazol are the best binders of the spike protein. Therefore, these compounds could be successful candidates against COVID-19 that need to be tested experimentally. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11239-021-02558-5.