Drug Repurposing Targeting COVID-19 3CL Protease using Molecular Docking and Machine Learning Regression Approach

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global health crisis, driving the need for the rapid identification of potential therapeutics. In this study, we used the Zinc database to screen the world-approved including FDA-approved 5903 drugs for repurposing as potential COVID-19 treatments targeting the main protease 3CL of SARS-CoV-2. We performed molecular docking using Autodock-Vina to check the efficacy of drug molecules. To enhance the efficiency of drug repurposing approach, we modeled the binding affinities using several machine learning regression approaches for QSAR modeling such as decision tree, extra trees, MLP, KNN, XGBoost, and gradient boosting. The computational results demonstrated that Decision Tree Regression (DTR) model has improved statistical measures of R2 and RMSE. These simulated results helped to identify drugs with high binding affinity and favorable binding energies. From the statistical analysis, we shortlisted 13 promising drugs with their respective Zinc IDs (ZINC000003873365, ZINC000085432544, ZINC000203757351, ZINC000085536956, ZINC000085536990, ZINC000008214470, ZINC000261494640, ZINC000169344691, ZINC000094303244, ZINC000095618608, ZINC000095618689, ZINC000095618743, and ZINC000253684767) within the range of -15.1 kcal/mol to -12.7 kcal/mol. Further, we analyzed the physiochemical properties of these selected drugs with respect to their best binding interaction to specific target protease. Our study has provided an efficient framework for drug repurposing against COVID-19. This highlights the potential of combining molecular docking with machine learning regression approaches to accelerate the identification of potential therapeutic candidates.Comment: 30 Page

Hybrid Approach to Identifying Druglikeness Leading Compounds against COVID-19 3CL Protease

SARS-CoV-2 is a positive single-strand RNA-based macromolecule that has caused the death of more than 6.3 million people since June 2022. Moreover, by disturbing global supply chains through lockdowns, the virus has indirectly caused devastating damage to the global economy. It is vital to design and develop drugs for this virus and its various variants. In this paper, we developed an in silico study-based hybrid framework to repurpose existing therapeutic agents in finding drug-like bioactive molecules that would cure COVID-19. In the first step, a total of 133 drug-likeness bioactive molecules are retrieved from the ChEMBL database against SARS coronavirus 3CL Protease. Based on the standard IC50, the dataset is divided into three classes: active, inactive, and intermediate. Our comparative analysis demonstrated that the proposed Extra Tree Regressor (ETR)-based QSAR model has improved prediction results related to the bioactivity of chemical compounds as compared to Gradient Boosting-, XGBoost-, Support Vector-, Decision Tree-, and Random Forest-based regressor models. ADMET analysis is carried out to identify thirteen bioactive molecules with the ChEMBL IDs 187460, 190743, 222234, 222628, 222735, 222769, 222840, 222893, 225515, 358279, 363535, 365134, and 426898. These molecules are highly suitable drug candidates for SARS-CoV-2 3CL Protease. In the next step, the efficacy of the bioactive molecules is computed in terms of binding affinity using molecular docking, and then six bioactive molecules are shortlisted, with the ChEMBL IDs 187460, 222769, 225515, 358279, 363535, and 365134. These molecules can be suitable drug candidates for SARS-CoV-2. It is anticipated that the pharmacologist and/or drug manufacturer would further investigate these six molecules to find suitable drug candidates for SARS-CoV-2. They can adopt these promising compounds for their downstream drug development stages.ISSN:1424-824