English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

There remains an urgent need to identify existing drugs that might besuitable for treating patients suffering from COVID-19 infection. Drugs rarelyact at a single molecular target, with off target effects often beingresponsible for undesirable side effects and sometimes, beneficial synergybetween targets for a specific illness. Off target activities have also led toblockbuster drugs in some cases, e.g. Viagra for erectile dysfunction andMinoxidil for male pattern hair loss. Drugs already in use or in clinicaltrials plus approved natural products constitute a rich resource for discoveryof therapeutic agents that can be repurposed for existing and new conditions,based on the rationale that they have already been assessed for safety in man.A key question then is how to rapidly and efficiently screen such compounds foractivity against new pandemic pathogens such as COVID-19. Here we show how afast and robust computational process can be used to screen large libraries ofdrugs and natural compounds to identify those that may inhibit the mainprotease of SARS-Cov-2 (3CL pro, Mpro). We show how the resulting shortlist ofcandidates with strongest binding affinities is highly enriched in compoundsthat have been independently identified as potential antivirals againstCOVID-19. The top candidates also include a substantial number of drugs andnatural products not previously identified as having potential COVID-19activity, thereby providing additional targets for experimental validation.This in silico screening pipeline may also be useful for repurposing ofexisting drugs and discovery of new drug candidates against other medicallyimportant pathogens and for use in future pandemics.

Computational screening of repurposed drugs and natural products against SARS-Cov-2 main protease (Mpro) as potential COVID-19 therapies