Mechanistic insight into anti-COVID-19 drugs: recent trends and advancements

Abstract

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has been established now to be a deadly disease afflicting the whole world with worst consequences on healthcare, economy and day-to-day life activities. Being a communicable disease, which is highly pathogenic in humans, causing cough, throat infection, breathing problems, high fever, muscle pain, and may lead to death in some cases especially those having other comorbid conditions such as heart or kidney problems, and diabetes. Finding an appropriate drug and vaccine candidate against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) remains an ultimate and immediate goal for the global scientific community. Based on previous studies in the literature on SARS-CoV infection, there are a number of drugs that may inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2 and its infection. Such drugs comprise of inhibitors of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), transmembrane Serine Protease 2 (TMPRSS2), nonstructural protein 3C-like protease, nonstructural RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and many more. The antiviral drugs such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and ritonavir as inhibitors for HIV protease, nucleotide analogue remdesivir, and broad-spectrum antiviral drugs are available to treat the SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. Therefore, this review article is planned to gain insight into the mechanism for blocking the entry of SARS-CoV-2, its validation, other inhibition mechanisms, and development of therapeutic drugs and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.

Molecular Docking studies of Apigenin, Kaempferol, and Quercetin as potential target against spike receptor protein of SARS COV

“…It is one among the 36 coronaviruses in the family of coronaviridae within the order Nidovirals. Members of this family are mainly known to cause respiratory or intestinal diseases in various creatures including humans (Tuli et al 2021a). Recent research suggests that natural plant-based compounds such as phytochemicals including flavonoids, alkaloids, and others may be useful in the development of safe SARS-CoV treatments (Talwar et al 2020;Vardhan and Sahoo 2020;Silveira et al, 2020;Tuli et al 2021a;Tuli et al 2021b;).…”

“…Members of this family are mainly known to cause respiratory or intestinal diseases in various creatures including humans (Tuli et al 2021a). Recent research suggests that natural plant-based compounds such as phytochemicals including flavonoids, alkaloids, and others may be useful in the development of safe SARS-CoV treatments (Talwar et al 2020;Vardhan and Sahoo 2020;Silveira et al, 2020;Tuli et al 2021a;Tuli et al 2021b;). In the year 2020, Vardhan and Sahoo (2020) pursued in silico computational analysis of phytochemicals including glycyrrhizic acid, limonin, 7-deacetyl-7-benzoylgedunin, maslinic acid, corosolic acid, obacunone, and ursolic acid and suggested their utility as promising drugs to target proteins of SARS-CoV-2.…”

Molecular Evolution of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2: Hazardous and More Hazardous Strains Behind the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic and Their Targeting by Drugs and Vaccines

“…COVID-19 is caused by an infection with the single-stranded RNA virus with positive polarity, i.e., severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that transmits mainly via respiratory droplets, aerosols, and fomites ( Abdullahi et al., 2020 ; Kawabata et al., 2020 ; Li et al., 2021 ; Mallah et al., 2021 ). Coronaviruses consist of enveloped virus particles with 80–120 nm of diameter; they have typically spherical or pleomorphic structure with spike-like projections of glycoproteins on surface, giving them a crown-like appearance under electron microscopy ( Tuli et al., 2021 ). The initial reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 is hypothesized to be bats transmitting the virus particles to human beings ( Tuli et al., 2021 ).…”

“…Coronaviruses consist of enveloped virus particles with 80–120 nm of diameter; they have typically spherical or pleomorphic structure with spike-like projections of glycoproteins on surface, giving them a crown-like appearance under electron microscopy ( Tuli et al., 2021 ). The initial reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 is hypothesized to be bats transmitting the virus particles to human beings ( Tuli et al., 2021 ). Within the time of the pandemic course, SARS-CoV-2 virus has been in a continuous molecular evolution, displaying genetic diversity and mutations with varied degrees of transmission and virulence ( Abdullahi et al., 2020 ; Deimel et al., 2021 ).…”