New molecule design with in-silico methods for Covid-19 treatment

Abstract

Intensive studies are being conducted to develop effective prevention and treatment strategies for the Covid-19 pandemic. During a pandemic, it is vital to act quickly to develop a defense strategy. It usually takes a long time to develop a preventive vaccine, and immediate drug development is needed to reduce the impact of the rapidly increasing Covid-19 pandemic. This study aimed to design an effective and potent drug by selecting remdesivir, a nucleotide analog prodrug that inhibits viral RNA polymerases and is known to be active against Covid-19. Remdesivir is metabolized into active nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) by the host; this metabolite competes with adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for incorporation into the nascent RNA strand. Therefore, molecular docking studies have been conducted based on NTP (the active form of remdesivir), and a target molecule that could be effective against Covid-19 has been designed.