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Abstract
The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has become a threat to global health and has led to a global
economic crisis. Although the researchers worldwide are putting tremendous effort
toward gaining more insights into this zoonotic virus and developing vaccines and
therapeutic drugs, no vaccine or drug is yet available to combat COVID-19 effectively.
Drug discovery is often a laborious, time-consuming, and expensive task. In this time
of crisis, employing computational methods could provide a feasible alternative approach
that can potentially be used for drug discovery. Therefore, a library of several antiparasitic
and anti-inflammatory drugs was virtually screened against SARS-CoV-2 proteases to
identify potential inhibitors. The identified inhibitory drugs were further analyzed
to confirm their activities against SARS-CoV-2. Our results could prove to be helpful
in repurposing the drug discovery approach, which could substantially reduce the expenses,
time, and resources required.