Repurposing the Natural Compound for Antiviral During an Epidemic -a Case Study on the Drug Repurpose of Natural Compounds to Treat COVID-19

The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly spreading and infecting the population on the global scale, it is a global health threat due to its high infection rate, high mortality and the lack of clinically approved drugs and vaccines for treating the disease (COVID-19). Utilising the published structures and homologue remodelling for proteins from SARS-CoV-2, an in silico molecular docking based screening was conducted and deposited in the Shennong project database. The results from the screening could be used to explain the clinical observation of repurposing the Ritonavir and Lopinavir to treat patients in the early stage of COVID-19 infection, and the prescription of Remdisivir in the United States as the therapy. Additionally, this molecular docking identified natural compound candidates for drug repurposing. This in silico molecular docking screen may be used for the initatial evaluation and rationalisation for drug repurposing of other potential candidates, especially other natural compounds from traditional Chinese medicines.