PHARMASPIRE - Volume 13, Issue 3, July - September, 2021

Pages: 77-85

Date of Publication: 07-Jun-2022

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Molnupiravir – A prospective silver bullet to mitigate severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2

Author: Meenakshi Negi , Pooja A. Chawla, Ghanshyam Teli , Abdul Faruk , Viney Chawla

Category: Pharmaceutics

Abstract:

The whole world is eagerly waiting for the unearthing of the best treatment strategy to put an end to the prevailing coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. The pathogen responsible for this disease, that is, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2) continues to be the most challenging issue that has kept the researchers and innovators all over the world in a dilemma of resolving it through finding the most efficacious, safe, and cost-effective therapy. A large number of drugs are under investigation as a part of drug repurposing approach for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. One such drug, molnupiravir, is under Phase II/III clinical trials against SARS-CoV-2. Through this work, the authors will give an insight into the various aspects of molnupiravir as an antiviral agent including chemistry, pharmacokinetics, synthetic route, in vitro, in vivo studies, clinical trials, and probable mode of antiviral action of molnupiravir against SARS-CoV-2. The molecular docking approach has also been used to evaluate the binding interactions of the active form of molnupiravir, N-4-hydroxycytidine, with the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of SARS-CoV-2 which emphasized on its good binding potential with the active site residues displaying a binding energy of ?6.4 kcal per mol.

Keywords: Molnupiravir, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, clinical trials, docking studies

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