{"doi":"10.26434/chemrxiv.12084822","title":"Computational Target-Based Drug Repurposing of Elbasvir, an Antiviral Drug Predicted to Bind Multiple SARS-CoV-2 Proteins","abstract":"Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV). While no drugs have yet been approved to treat this disease, small molecules effective against other viral infections are under clinical evaluation for therapeutic abatement of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Ongoing clinical trials include Kaletra (a combination of two protease inhibitors approved for HIV treatment), remdesivir (an investigational drug targeting RNA-dependent RNA polymerase [RdRP] of SARS-CoV-2), and hydroxychloroquine (an approved anti-malarial and immuno-modulatory drug). Since SARS-CoV-2 replication depends on three virally encoded proteins (RdRP, papain-like proteinase, and helicase), we screened 54 FDA-approved antiviral drugs and ~3300 investigational drugs for binding to these proteins using targeted and unbiased docking simulations and computational modeling. Elbasvir, a drug approved for treating hepatitis C, is predicted to bind stably and preferentially to all three proteins. At the therapeutic dosage, elbasvir has low toxicity (liver enzymes transiently elevated in 1% of subjects) and well-characterized drug-drug interactions. We predict that treatment with elbasvir, alone or in combination with other drugs such as grazoprevir, could efficiently block SARS-CoV-2 replication. The concerted action of elbasvir on at least three targets essential for viral replication renders viral mutation to drug resistance extremely unlikely.","journal":"ChemRxiv","year":2020,"id":119176,"datarank":1.1218796192886324,"base_score":3.295836866004329,"endowment":3.295836866004329,"self_citation_contribution":0.4943755299006494,"citation_network_contribution":0.6275040893879831,"self_endowment_contribution":0.4943755299006494,"citer_contribution":0.6275040893879831,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":26,"citer_count":26,"citers_with_citation_signal":22,"citers_with_endowment":22,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9555,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":458711,"name":"Robert J. Shmookler Reis","orcid":"0000-0002-4691-0734","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":458708,"name":"Meenakshisundaram Balasubramaniam","orcid":"0000-0003-0273-8757","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":26,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:14:08.313144Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}