A protein interaction map identifies existing drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), an emerging Betacoronavirus, is the causative agent of COVID-19. Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), being the main cell receptor of SARS-CoV-2, plays a role in the entry of the virus into the cell. Currently, there are neither specific antiviral drugs for the treatment or preventive drugs such as vaccines. Methods: We proposed a bioinformatics analysis to test in silico existing drugs as a fast way to identify an efficient therapy. We performed a differential expression analysis in order to identify differentially expressed genes in COVID-19 patients correlated with ACE-2 and we explored their direct relations with a network approach integrating also drug-gene interactions. The drugs with a central role in the network were also investigated with a molecular docking analysis. Results: We found 825 differentially expressed genes correlated with ACE2. The protein-protein interactions among differentially expressed genes identified a network of 474 genes and 1130 interactions. Conclusions: The integration of drug-gene interactions in the network and molecular docking analysis allows us to obtain several drugs with antiviral activity that, alone or in combination with other treatment options, could be considered as therapeutic approaches against COVID-19.

Potential Drugs Against COVID-19 Revealed By Gene Expression profile, Molecular Docking and Molecular Dynamic Simulation

“…In conclusion, we proposed several existing drugs with antiviral activity that, alone or in combination, could be considered as drugs against COVID-19. However, it is vital to better understand the clinicopathological features of COVID-19 to design treatment plans leading to favorable outcomes in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients [ 56 , 57 ].…”

Present and future treatment strategies for coronavirus disease 2019

“…The resulting pattern could facilitate the structure-guided pharmaceutical and diagnostic research in order to identify potential new host targets. In addition, Cava et al [ 64 ] reported that the incorporation of drug-gene interactions in the molecular docking analysis is very helpful in finding several drugs with antiviral activity which could be used alone or in combination with other therapeutic options as new therapeutic approaches in the battle against COVID-19 pandemic disease.…”

Transcriptomics-based drug repositioning pipeline identifies therapeutic candidates for COVID-19

“…While numerous efforts are underway to identify potential therapies targeting various aspects of the disease, there is a paucity of clinically proven treatments for COVID-19. There have been efforts to therapeutically target the hyperinflammation associated with severe COVID-19 4 , as well as to utilize previously identified antiviral medications 5 , 6 . One of these antivirals, remdesivir, an intravenously administered RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inhibitor, showed positive preliminary results in patients with severe COVID-19 7 .…”