  Due to SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) being a
novel virus, there are currently no known effective antiviral drugs capable of
slowing its progress. To accelerate the discovery of potential drug candidates,
bioinformatics based in silico drug discovery can be applied as a very robust
tool. In the present study, more than 60 antiviral drugs already available on
the market, were chosen after literature survey. These can be used in clinical
trials for the treatment of COVID-19. In this study, these candidate drugs were
ranked based on their potential to interact with the Spike protein and RdRp
(RNA-dependent RNA polymerase) of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, the mechanism of
their action as well as how the virus infection can utilize Hemoglobin to
decrease the oxygen level in blood is explained. Moreover, multiple sequence
alignments of the Spike protein with 75 sequences of different viruses from the
Orthocoronavirinae subfamily were performed. This gives insight into the
evolutionarily conserved domains that can be targeted using drug or antibody
treatment. This multidimensional study opens a new layer of understanding about
the most effective drug-targetable sites on the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.
