Drug repurposing approach against chikungunya virus: an and study.

The chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus transmitted by . There are no licenced antivirals or vaccines for treatment or prevention. Drug repurposing approach has emerged as a novel concept to find alternative uses of therapeutics to battle pathogens. In the present study, anti CHIKV activity of fourteen FDA-approved drugs was investigated by and approaches. Focus-forming unit assay, immunofluorescence test, and quantitative RT-PCR assay were used to assess the inhibitory effect of these drugs against CHIKV in Vero CCL-81 cells. The findings showed that nine compounds, viz., temsirolimus, 2-fluoroadenine, doxorubicin, felbinac, emetine, lomibuvir, enalaprilat, metyrapone and resveratrol exhibit anti chikungunya activity. Furthermore, molecular docking studies performed by targeting CHIKV structural and non-structural proteins revealed that these drugs can bind to structural protein targets such as envelope protein, and capsid, and non-structural proteins NSP2, NSP3 and NSP4 (RdRp). Findings from and studies reveal that these drugs can suppress the infection and replication of CHIKV and further studies followed by clinical trials are warranted.