Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected more than 30 million people from all over the world. The SARS-CoV-2 is the pathogen of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Its infection may cause mild illness, but in certain susceptible persons, it may cause critical condition leading to respiratory failure and even multi-organ failure. The finding of effective curative medicine for the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a huge challenge to the scientists. The drug repurposing with the help of computational simulation may be a one positive step towards the development of an effective curative therapeutic agent for this pathogen. Aim: To evaluate the binding affinity of four antiviral drugs with this COVID-19 virus spike receptor binding domain with the application of molecular docking.

Methods: In the present study, four antiviral agents have been selected for the evaluation of binding affinity with the COVID-19 virus spike receptor binding domain. The antiviral drugs included in the study are sofosbuvir, dasabuvir, ledipasvir and daclatasvir while remdesivir is used as standard. The binding affinity was evaluated with the application of molecular docking.

Results: In the present study, four antiviral drugs have been evaluated for drug repurposing which included sofosbuvir, dasabuvir, ledipasvir and daclatasvir while remdesivir is used as standard for the result comparison. The docking score (binding affinity) of ledipasvir (-8.12 kcal/mol) and daclatasvir (-7.47 kcal/mol) was more than remdesivir (-6.54 kcal/mol).

Conclusion: The antiviral agents used for the management of HCV (positive sense - RNA virus) could also be a potential candidate drugs for the management of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Keywords: Molecular Docking; Drug Repurposing; COVID-19