Computational Search for Potential COVID-19 Drugs from FDA-Approved Drugs and Small Molecules of Natural Origin Identifies Several Anti-Virals and Plant Products

The world is facing COVID-19 pandemic at the present time, for which mild symptoms include fever and dry cough. In severe cases it could lead to pneumonia and ultimately death in some instances. The pathogen, SARS-CoV-2, is one of the human coronaviruses which was identified to infect humans first in December 2019. We have interrogated the capacity to repurpose around 2300 FDA-approved drugs and more than 300,000 small molecules of natural origin towards drug identification through virtual screening and molecular dynamics. Interestingly, we observed simple molecules like lactose, previously known anti-virals and few secondary metabolites of plants as promising hits.