Five antiviral drugs that may be effective against the new 2019 coronavirus (2019-nCoV) have been screened, Huawei Cloud said today.
This was done by Huawei Cloud in cooperation with four Chinese research institutes in order to provide reference for further drug development by research institutions and pharmaceutical companies.
The above-mentioned joint research team targeted ultra-large-scale computer-assisted drug screening of 8,506 drugs that are on the market or are undergoing clinical trials for multiple target proteins of the new coronavirus in 2019, and achieved the first stage results within one week.
The study found that there are five drugs that may be effective against 2019 new coronaviruses: Beclabuvir, Saquinavir, Bictegravir, Lopinavir, and Dolutegravir.
The joint research team found:
Beclabuvir can not only bind to Mpro protein, but also a potential inhibitor of 2019 new coronavirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase NSP12;
Saquinavir not only binds well to Mpro protein, but also to the S protein of the new coronavirus 2019, which can prevent the virus from expanding inside and on the surface at the same time.
At present, the joint research team is conducting cytological verification of the above five antiviral drugs and promoting clinical trials of the drugs.
The research results released by the joint research team will be made available to biomedical research institutions through Huawei Cloud for the development of antiviral drugs.