DFT and docking studies of designed conjugates of noscapines & repurposing drugs: promising inhibitors of main protease of SARS-CoV-2 and falcipan-2

Abstract

First case of the present epidemic, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is reported in the Wuhan, a city of the China and all the countries throughout the world are being affected. COVID-19 is named by World Health Organization and it stands for coronavirus disease-19. As on 27^th October, 2020, 73,776,588 people around the world are infected. It is also known as SARS-CoV-2 infection. Till date, there is no promising drug or vaccine available in market to cure from this lethal infection. As the literature reported that noscapine a promising candidate to cure from malaria as well reported to be cough suppressant and anti-cancerous. In our previous work, a derivative of noscapine has shown potential behavior against the main protease of novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2. Based on the previous study, hybrid molecules based on noscapine and repurposing (antiviral) drugs were designed to target the main protease of novel coronavirus and falcipan-2 using molecular docking. It is proposed that the designed hydrids or conjugates may have promising antiviral property i.e. against the main protease of novel coronavirus and falcipan-2. The designed molecules were thoroughly studied by DFT and different thermodynamic parameters were determined. Further, infrared and Raman spectra of the designed hybrid molecules were determined and studied.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Noscapine
• repurposing drugs
• hybrids
• docking
• DFT

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Scheme 1. Desinging of noscapine based hybrid molecules using repurposing drugs (Umifenovir, Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine).