Assessing Antiviral Mechanisms of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, N-acetylcysteine and Acetylsalicylic acid on SARS-CoV-2


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Silme R. S.

International journal of advances in engineering and pure sciences (Online), cilt.38, sa.1, ss.10-22, 2026 (TRDizin)

Özet

The potential antiviral activity of FDA-approved 3 compounds (N-acetyl-D-glucosamine; GlcNAc, N-acetylcysteine; NAC, and Acetylsalicylic acid; ASA) against SARS-CoV-2 was investigated. Molecular docking analysis of these compounds as ligands with the main 22 viral proteins was made to predict their possible interaction. All molecules showed interactions with the viral proteins; the mean binding scores for GlcNAc and ASA were very close (-6.81 kcal/mol and -6.31 kcal/mol, respectively), while NAC designated the lowest value (-4.69 kcal/mol). GlcNAc showed the highest binding energy of -8.80 kcal/mol against both the target proteins RdRp-RTP site (7BV2) and Helicase-ANP binding site (7NN0). Since these 22 proteins, including main protease (Mpro) and Papain-like protease (PLpro), are responsible for replication and various pathogenesis processes, it could be concluded that these FDA-approved commercially available compounds have antiviral properties against SARS-CoV-2, which should be confirmed with further in vivo and clinical trials.