Nahid Shahabadi - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Saba Zendehcheshm - Center of Medical Biology Research (MBRC) Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences,Kermanshah, Iran
Mohammad Mahdavi - Center of Medical Biology Research (MBRC) Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences,Kermanshah, Iran

The pandemic caused by novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infecting millions of populations worldwide and counting, has demanded quick and potential therapeutic strategies. Current approved drugs or molecules under clinical trials can be a good pool for repurposing through in-silico techniques to quickly identify promising drug candidates. Silica nanoparticles were previously approved by the US food and drug administration (FDA) for stage I human clinical trial for targeted molecular imaging and studies have also demonstrated their antiviral and antimicrobial activity in vitro. Therefore, we performed a docking study to explore the interaction of Silica NPs with the spike protein receptor binding domain (S1-RBD) of SARSCoV-2 that is required for virus attachment to the host cell receptors. Silica NPs formed a stable complex with S1-RBD. This interaction of Silica NPs is expected to be associated with viral proteins conformational changes and hence, viral inactivation. Therefore, we recommend FDA-approved Silica NPs in the production of fabric products that are used in gowns, masks, gloves, head nets, and overshoes of hospital.

Molecular docking, COVID-19, FDA-approved, Silica NPs