NSLS-II Friday Lunchtime Seminar

The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 in December 2019 posed great threats to public health and attracted enormous attention around the world. The morbidity and mortality rates associated with COVID-19 in the United States and Europe are increasing exponentially. To date, there are no clinically approved vaccines or antiviral drugs available for these COVID-19 infections and hence there is urgent demand for effective therapeutics and vaccines to control and eradicate the pandemic. We are using structure-based drug discovery (SBDD) approach to develop anti-COVID-19 drugs by targeting multiple viral targets. In order to ramp up the discovery process, we are screening FDA approved drugs with special attention to other existing antiviral and pathogen-specific drugs. Indeed, we have identified few FDA approved drugs that can inhibit (with moderate potency) one of the SARS-CoV-2 viral protein, main protease (Mpro), which play a key role in the viral replication cycle. In this presentation, we will highlight our efforts on SBDD approach on Mpro as a representative target that includes viral protein production, molecular docking studies, in-vitro binding assay and the co-crystal structure determination.