5  Conclusion
In conclusion, ATM and CLQ-OH have synergistic antiviral effects on SARS-CoV-2 infection, which supports the use of this combination therapy for the COVID-19 pandemic. In this bitherapy, one molecule (ATM) is directed against the virus, while the other (CLQ-OH) is directed against cellular attachment cofactors. However, the two drugs are predicted to act in synergy to prevent the first step of SARS-CoV-2 infection, at the plasma membrane level, where therapeutic intervention is likely to be most efficient. The conserved QFN triad of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is recognized by both gangliosides and ATM, should be considered as a target for neutralizing antibodies in vaccine strategies. The molecular modelling approaches used here are based on the search for ganglioside saccharide mimicry and might be useful to identify other ATM binding sites on virus proteins, and more generally to predict the efficacy of any potential repurposed and/or innovative drug candidates before clinical evaluation. In this respect, we suggest testing the antiviral association of ATM with short synthetic peptides specifically designed to target gangliosides without toxicity [17,33].