Predictions for the binding domain and potential new drug targets of 2019-nCoV

Zehua Zeng; Zhi Luo; Hongwu Du

Here we suggest that 28N may be a potential drug target for 2019-nCoV. According to Coach analysis, we found that 28N could be an strong ligand to bing the S protein. In past studies, it was found that 28N can strongly bind PvdQ, and the residues near its binding site are T166, L169 and L170 12 . In the spatial structure simulation of S protein of 2019-ncov, we found that S protein has a three-dimensional structure highly cosimilar to PvdQ. More importantly, its binding site residues are also T874, L877 and L878, which are almost exactly matched. This conclusion indicates that 28N can bind to S protein. A search on the pubchem platform revealed that seven of the eight BioAssay Results listed as active were as inhibitors and one as stimulants. We speculate that 28N can inhibit the activity of S protein of 2019-ncov, but more experiments are needed to confirm this conclusion.