Abstract: The noncovalent interaction between various polymethine dyes (45 compounds in total) and a spike protein (S), one of the main structural component of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, is studied in silico (molecular docking) to develop effective probes to detect the virus. The interaction energies and the spatial configurations of the complexes of the dye molecules with S are found. We showed that cationic polymethine dyes and neutral squarylium dyes do not form stable complexes with S. Some anionic dyes having negative total energies E may be recommended for practical research. tot