Repurposing metocurine as main protease inhibitor to develop novel antiviral therapy for COVID-19

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 is causing a serious disaster through coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) around the globe. A large segment of the population from every corner of the world is already infected with this dreadful pathogen with a high mortality rate. These numbers are increasing drastically causing a situation of a global pandemic. Although after the continuous scientific efforts, we are still not having any specific drug or vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen to date and there is an urgent need to develop a newer therapy to counter the COVID-19 global pandemic. Thus, in the current study, a framework for computational drug repurposing is established, and based on their safety profile, metocurine was chosen as a safe and effective drug candidate for developing therapy against the viral Mpro enzyme of SARS-CoV-2 for the treatment of COVID-19.