Old drugs as lead compounds for a new disease? Binding analysis of SARS coronavirus main proteinase with HIV, psychotic and parasite drugs.

The SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) main proteinase is a key enzyme in viral polyprotein processing. To allow structure-based design of drugs directed at SARS-CoV main proteinase, we predicted its binding pockets and affinities with existing HIV, psychotic and parasite drugs (lopinavir, ritonavir, niclosamide and promazine), which show signs of inhibiting the replication of SARS-CoV. Our results suggest that these drugs and another two HIV inhibitors (PNU and UC2) could be used as templates for designing SARS-CoV proteinase inhibitors.