screening of camphene as a potential inhibitor targeting sarscov-2 various structural and functional mutants: through reverse docking approach

Background: sars-cov was first identified in 2003 but sars-cov-2, which gained its recognition again in 2019 as covid-19, has been a crucial threat worldwide and has caused more death rates than the sars-cov but till now no confined treatments are available. the present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of camphene against various structural and functional mutants of sars-cov-2 using reverse docking protocol.methods: to investigate the efficacy of camphene as a potential antiviral drug against covid-19, against of all possible target proteins in sars-cov-2, which could lead to a new platform for drug discovery. reverse pharmacology (reverse docking) approach was performed, which involved docking of camphene and 20 structural and non-structural proteins (nsps) of sars-cov-2 performed using maestro 12.8 of schrödinger.results: the results were evaluated since the minimum binding energy obtained after docking and camphene was effective against most of the proteins responsible for sars-cov-2, but camphene showed greater efficacy against the main protease (protease 9), which is main functional protein ofsars-cov-2. hence, the study proves that camphene can be a good drug candidate for different mutants of sars-cov-2.conclusion: protease 9, which is the main functional protein of sars-cov-2, expressed the best binding affinity with camphene having the minimum binding energy (-5.616). hence, it is concluded that camphene could be the drug contender against protease 9 as it is a more potent target in sarscov-2. this could be a major finding, as camphene is related to camphor, which is already very beneficial against many respiratory problems.