Background:

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was caused havoc throughout the world by creating widespread mortality and morbidity. The presence of RNA binding domain in the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2 is a potential drug target, serving multiple critical functions during the viral life cycle, especially the viral replication. The unavailability of vaccines and proper antiviral drugs encourages the researchers to identify some potential antiviral drug compounds to be used against N protein of SARS-CoV-2 for this current scenario. While vaccine development might take some time, the identification of a drug compound might decrease the widespread deaths and suffering.

Method: This study was analyzed the phylogenetic relationship of N protein sequence divergence with other 49 CoV species and also identified the conserved regions according to protein families through conserved domain search. Along with it, good structural binding affinities of some natural/synthetic phytocompounds/ drugs against N protein were also found using the molecular docking approaches.

Result: The analyzed antiviral properties, predicted binding affinities and the presence of higher numbers of Hydrogen bonds of selected compounds represent the drug-ability of these compounds. Among them, the established antiviral drug Glycyrrhizic acid and the phytochemical Theaflavin can be considered as putative drug compound against target protein of SARS-CoV-2 as they showed all the properties of a potential drug.

Conclusion: The findings of this study might lead to the development of a drug for the disease and helpful to reduce the risk of deadly infections in host cell due to SARS-CoV-2.

背景：

冠状病毒疾病2019（COVID-19）通过造成广泛的死亡率和发病率在世界范围内造成严重破坏。SARS-CoV-2的核衣壳（N）蛋白中RNA结合结构域的存在是潜在的药物靶标，在病毒生命周期（尤其是病毒复制）中发挥多种关键功能。疫苗和合适的抗病毒药物的缺乏鼓励研究人员在当前情况下确定一些潜在的抗SARS-CoV-2 N蛋白的抗病毒药物化合物。尽管开发疫苗可能需要一些时间，但鉴定化合物可能会减少广泛的死亡和痛苦。

方法： 本研究分析了N蛋白序列差异与其他49种冠状病毒物种的系统发育关系，并通过保守结构域搜索根据蛋白家族鉴定了保守区域。伴随着它，还使用分子对接方法发现了一些天然/合成植物化合物/药物对N蛋白的良好结构结合亲和力。

结果： 所选化合物的分析抗病毒特性，预测的结合亲和力和更高数量的氢键的存在代表了这些化合物的药物能力。其中，已建立的抗病毒药甘草酸和植物化学物质茶黄素可以显示出对抗SARS-CoV-2靶蛋白的推定药物化合物，因为它们显示了潜在药物的所有特性。

结论： 这项研究的发现可能会导致该疾病的药物开发，并有助于降低由于SARS-CoV-2导致宿主细胞致命感染的风险。