Interaction between favipiravir and hydroxychloroquine and their combined drug assessment: in silico investigations

• DOI: 10.1007/s11696-021-01946-8
• Publication Date: 2021-11-02T19:01:03Z
• Authors: Cemal Parlak; Özgür Alver; Cecil Naphtaly Mo...; Lydia Rhyman; Ponnadurai Ramasami
• Keywords: Atoms; Original Paper; Microbiological Activity; Pristine; DFT; 01 natural sciences; Drug interactions; 0104 chemical sciences; 3. Good health; QTAIM; Favipiravir; ADME; Intermolecular Interactions; Covid-19; Molecular-Structure; Hydroxychloroquine

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and favipiravir (FPV) are known to be effective antivirals, and there are reports about their use to fight the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) despite that these are not conclusive. The use of combined drugs is common in drug discovery, and thus, we investigated HCQ and FPV as a combined drug. The density functional theory method was used for the optimization of geometries, spectroscopic analysis and calculation of reactivity parameters. The quantum theory of atoms in molecules was applied to explain the nature of the hydrogen bonds and confirm the higher stability of the combined drug. We also evaluated the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) parameters to assess their drug actions jointly using SwissADME. The preliminary findings of our theoretical study are promising for further investigations of more potent and selective antiviral drugs.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11696-021-01946-8.