Modern drug discovery applications for the identification of novel candidates for COVID-19 infections

Abstract

In early December 2019, a large pneumonia epidemic occurred in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization is concerned about the outbreak of another coronavirus with the powerful, rapid, and contagious transmission. Anyone with minor symptoms like fever and cough or travel history to contaminated places might be suspected of having COVID-19. COVID-19 therapy focuses on treating the disease's symptoms. So far, no such therapeutic molecule has been shown effective in treating this condition. So the treatment is mostly supportive and plasma. Globally, numerous studies and researchers have recently started fighting this virus. Vaccines and chemical compounds are also being investigated against infection. COVID-19 was successfully diagnosed using RNA detection and very sensitive RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction). The evolution of particular vaccinations is required to reduce illness severity and spread. Numerous computational analyses and molecular docking have predicted various target compounds that might stop this condition. This paper examines the main characteristics of coronavirus and the computational analyses necessary to avoid infection.

Keywords: Alkaloids; COVID-19; Computational; Glycosides; In silico; Terpenoids.

Fig. 1

Current status of COVID-19 around the world until May 12, 2022.

Fig. 2

SARS-2/COVID-19 genome structure.

Fig. 3

Interconnected approaches of bioinformatics helpful to find novel treatment against COVID-19 infection.

Fig. 4

Expected drug discovery and development (DDD) timeline for COVID-19 infections.

Fig. 5

Frequently used computer-aided drug design (CADD) pipeline to identify or repurpose antiviral drugs against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Fig. 6

Structural representation of various vanillin derivatives studied by Law et al. Ref [34].