Heliyon
Volume 7, Issue 9, September 2021, e07962
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Research article
Telaprevir is a potential drug for repurposing against SARS-CoV-2: computational and in vitro studies

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07962Get rights and content
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Abstract

Drug repurposing is an important approach to the assignment of already approved drugs for new indications. This technique bypasses some steps in the traditional drug approval system, which saves time and lives in the case of pandemics. Direct acting antivirals (DAAs) have repeatedly repurposed from treating one virus to another. In this study, 16 FDA-approved hepatitis C virus (HCV) DAA drugs were studied to explore their activities against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) human and viral targets. Among the 16 HCV DAA drugs, telaprevir has shown the best in silico evidence to work on both indirect human targets (cathepsin L [CTSL] and human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 [hACE2] receptor) and direct viral targets (main protease [Mpro]). Moreover, the docked poses of telaprevir inside both hACE2 and Mpro were subjected to additional molecular dynamics simulations monitored by calculating the binding free energy using MM-GBSA. In vitro analysis of telaprevir showed inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication in cell culture (IC50 = 11.552 μM, CC50 = 60.865 μM, and selectivity index = 5.27). Accordingly, based on the in silico studies and supported by the presented in vitro analysis, we suggest that telaprevir may be considered for therapeutic development against SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords

Anti-HCV
Drug repurposing
Telaprevir
Protease inhibitor
SARS-CoV-2

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