Superiority of cilostazol among antiplatelet FDA‐approved drugs against COVID 19 M(pro) and spike protein: Drug repurposing approach

Abosheasha, Mohammed A.; El‐Gowily, Afnan H.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) was first identified in Wuhan, China near the end of 2019. To date, COVID‐19 had spread to almost 235 countries and territories due to its highly infectious nature. Moreover, there is no vaccine or Food and Drug Administration (FDA)‐approved drug. More time is needed to establish one of them. Consequently, the drug repurposing approach seems to be the most attractive and quick solution to accommodate this crisis. In this regard, we performed molecular docking‐based virtual screening of antiplatelet FDA‐approved drugs on the key two viral target proteins: main protease (M(pro)) and spike glycoprotein (S) as potential inhibitor candidates for COVID‐19. In the present study, 15 antiplatelet FDA‐approved drugs were investigated against the concerned targets using the Molecular Docking Server. Our study revealed that only cilostazol has the most favorable binding interaction on M(pro) (PDB ID: 6LU7) and cilostazol, iloprost, epoprostenol, prasugrel, and icosapent ethyl have a higher binding affinity on spike glycoprotein (S) (PDB ID: 6VYB) compared with recent anti‐CoVID‐19. Therefore, cilostazol is a promising FDA drug against COVID‐19 by inhibiting both M(pro) and S protein. The insights gained in this study may be useful for quick approach against COVID‐19 in the future.