Novel Targets of SARS-CoV-2 and Potential Inhibitors against the Viral Targeted Proteins: A Review

Abstract

The world-wide pandemic emerged due to severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing viral respiratory disease (COVID-19). An insight into coronavirus drug, vaccine targets and their controlling agents are necessary and important for exploring new drugs and vaccines against the viral activities. Recent drug targets identified includes RNA-dependent-RNA polymerase (RdRp), papain-like proteases (PLpro), helicases, 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CLpro) are the proteins which are responsible for the viral replication and viral RNA synthesis. Most of the studies focussed on vaccine targets including spike protein (S), envelope protein (E), nucleocapsid protein (N) and membrane protein (M) to mitigate the proliferation and concentration of viral particles from infected one to others. Recent works revealed a strong awareness about the use of FDA approved drugs favipiravir, remdesivir, galidesivir, lopinavir, itraconazole, acyclovir and fleximer as repurposed drugs and few phytochemicals were also screened against the activity of viral enzymes to treat the complexity of the viral disease.