A student led computational screening of peptide inhibitors against main protease of SARS-CoV-2

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2022

Abstract

The main protease of SARS-CoV-2 is a promising drug target due to its functional role as a catalytic dyad in mediating proteolysis during the viral life cycle. In this study, experimentally proven 14 HIV protease peptides were screened against the main protease of SARS-CoV-2. Fourteen middle and high school “student researchers” were trained on relevant computational tools, provided with necessary biological and chemical background and scientific article writing. They performed the primary screening via molecular docking and the best performing complexes were subjected to molecular dynamics simulations. Molecular docking revealed that HIP82 and HIP1079 can bind with the catalytic residues, however after molecular dynamics simulation only HIP1079 retained its interaction with the catalytic sites. The student researchers were also trained to write scientific article and were involved with drafting of the manuscript. This project provided the student researchers an insight into multi-disciplinary research in biology and chemistry, inspired them about practical approaches of computational chemistry in solving a real-world problem like a global pandemic. This project also serves as an example to introduce scientific inquiry, research methodology, critical thinking, scientific writing, and communication for high school students.

Journal Title

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education

Journal ISSN

14708175

Volume

50

Issue

1

First Page

7

Last Page

20

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1002/bmb.21580

Share

COinS