Revista de Ingeniería

revinge | eISSN 2011-0049 | ISSN 0121-4993

Hunting an unknown molecule: The compelling need to discover novel antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2

No. 50 (2020-06-01)
  • Andrés Felipe Vásquez
    1. Investigador postdoctoral, Departamento de Ingeniería Química y de Alimentos, Universidad de los Andes. Contacto: af.vasquez231@uniandes.edu.co
  • Yasser Hayek Orduz
    2. Estudiante de último año de pregrado, Departamento de Ingeniería Química y de Alimentos, Universidad de los Andes. Contacto: y.hayek10@uniandes.edu.co
  • Felipe Sierra Hurtado
    3. Estudiante de último año de pregrado, Departamento de Ingeniería Química y de Alimentos, Universidad de los Andes. Contacto: f.sierra10@uniandes.edu.co
  • Luke E. Achenie
    4. Profesor Titular, Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Instituto Politécnico y Universidad Estatal de Virginia (Virginia Tech), EEUU. Contacto: achenie@vt.edu
  • Andrés González Barrios
    5. Director y Profesor asociado, Departamento de Ingeniería Química y de Alimentos, Universidad de los Andes. Contacto: andgonza@uniandes.edu.co
https://doi.org/10.16924/revinge.50.4

Abstract

For almost a year, humanity has been threatened by the new coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2, which originated in China, and from there has spread to almost all regions around the globe. The incidence and mortality of this dangerous virus, which have recently increased in countries like Colombia, has overwhelmed public health systems and has created enormous difficulties and challenges at the economic, social, and political levels. With the aim of quickly finding treatment alternatives, running parallel to prevention initiatives spurred by the arrival of an effective vaccine, computational biology and computer-aided technologies have now been playing a booming role and have rapidly positioned themselves as key players in the pharmaceutical industry. This paper presents the main findings of a study focused on designing and discovering new agents with inhibitory capacity against the new coronavirus, describing the methodological strategy employed and presenting the implications, challenges, and future perspectives associated with finding a molecule with promising therapeutic potential.

Keywords: Drug Discovery, Cheminformatics, Molecular Modeling, Virtual Screening, Free-Energy Calculations, Chemical Library Design, SARS-CoV-2

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