Combination and tricombination therapy to destabilize the structural integrity of COVID-19 by some bioactive compounds with antiviral drugs: insights from molecular docking study

Recently, the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic virus has been spreading throughout the world. Until now, no certified drugs have been discovered to efficiently inhibit the virus. The scientists are struggling to find new safe bioactive inhibitors of this deadly virus. In this study, we aim to find antagonists that may inhibit the activity of the three major viral targets: SARS-CoV-2 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (6LU7), SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (6VYB), and a host target human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor (1R42), which is the entry point for the viral encounter, were studied with the prospects of identifying significant drug candidate(s) against COVID-19 infection. Then, the protein stability produced score of less than 0.6 for all residues of all studied receptors. This confirmed that these receptors are extremely stable proteins, so it is very difficult to unstable the stability of these proteins through utilizing individual drugs. Hence, we studied the combination and tricombination therapy between bioactive compounds which have the best binding affinity and some antiviral drugs like chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, simeprevir, baloxavir, lopinavir, and favipiravir to show the effect of combination and tricombination therapy to disrupt the stability of the three major viral targets that are mentioned previously. Also, ADMET study suggested that most of all studied bioactive compounds are safe and nontoxic compounds. All results confirmed that caulerpin can be utilized as a combination and tricombination therapy along with the studied antiviral drugs for disrupting the stability of the three major viral receptors (6LU7, 6VYB, and 1R42). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11224-020-01723-5.