Using Computer-Aided Drug Design to progress compounds from byte to test tube – Targeting conserved protein binding sites on SARS-CoV-2

As new medications are used to treat COVID-19, many studies have reported that proteins such as spike, polymerase and proteases are
prone to high levels of mutation that can create resistance to therapy over time. Thus, it becomes necessary to, not only target other viral
proteins such as the non-structural proteins (nsp’s), but to also target the most conserved residues of these proteins. In our present work, we
have applied a synergistic combination of bioinformatics, computer-aided drug-design and in vitro studies for better understanding of SARS-CoV-2
helping in the development of small molecule inhibitors against the nsp’s.