Pharmaceutical Targeting the Envelope Protein of SARS-CoV-2: the Screening for Inhibitors in Approved Drugs

Abstract

An essential overview of the biological role of coronavirus viroporin (envelope protein) is given, together with the effect of its known inhibitors on the life cycle of coronavirus. A docking study is conducted using a set of known drugs approved worldwide (ca. 6000 compounds) on a structure of the SARS-CoV-2 viroporin modelled from the published NMR-resolved structures. The screening has identified 36 promising drugs currently on the market, which could be proposed for pre-clinical trials.

The Photosensitizer Temoporfin (mTHPC) – Chemical, Pre‐clinical and Clinical Developments in the Last Decade†‡

“…A similar mechanism was shown for temoporfin; however, it exhibited only moderate antiviral activity (582). Note, temoporfin has also been suggested in a pre-print as a potential blocker of SARS-CoV-2 E channel based on a docking study (583). A computational study by Absalan et al identified temoporfin as the best candidate for docking with the COVID-19 major protease (6LU7) (584).…”

The virus that shook the world: questions and answers about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19

“…Like SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 lacks the haemagglutinin esterase gene found in human coronavirus (hCoV) HKU1 [8]. The spike protein [2], envelope protein [9,10], membrane protein, nucleocapsid protein [11], 3CL protease [12], papain-like protease [13], RNA polymerase [14] and helicase [15] have been proposed as viable targets for antiviral drugs [16][17][18]. Examples of some viral proteins listed above are presented in Figure 3.…”