Screening Efficacy of Available HIV Protease Inhibitors on COVID-19 Protease

Background and Aim: Advent of COVID-19 attracted the attentions of researchers to develop drugs for its treatment. Besides efforts on developing new drugs, screening available drugs for efficacy on COVID-19 could be an urgent action of initiating its pharmacotherapy. In this study, efficacy of HIV protease inhibitors on COVID-19 protease has been examined. Methods: Molecular docking based screening by AutoDock software has been done to examine the efficacy of ligand-receptor interactions. Results: Obtained results of binding energy, inhibitory constant and interactions quality have approved the idea of efficacy of HIV protease inhibitors on COVID-19 protease. Conclusion: Quantitative results indicated different levels of efficacy of investigated ligands for inhibitory activity of COVID-19 and qualitative results indicated various localizations of ligands in the proposed active site of protease. The concluding remarks of this study are to introduce Nelfinavir as the best ligand in quantitative respect and each of Saquinavir, Amprenavir and Fosamprenavir as the best ligands inqualitative respect for possible inhibitory effects on COVID-19 protease.