Phytochemicals against SARS-CoV as potential drug leads

Abstract

The newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 strains from the coronavirus (CoV) family is causing one of the most disruptive pandemics of the past century. Developing antiviral drugs is a challenge for the scientific community and pharmaceutical industry. Given the health emergency, repurposing of existing antiviral, antiinflammatory or antimalarial drugs is an attractive option for controlling SARS-CoV-2 with drugs. However, phytochemicals selected based on ethnomedicinal information as well as in vitro antiviral studies could be promising as well. Here, we summarise the phytochemicals with reported anti-CoV activity, and further analyzed them computationally to accelerate validation for drug development against SARS-CoV-2. This systematic review started from the most potent phytocompounds (IC 50 in μM) against SARS-CoV, followed by a cluster analysis to locate the most suitable lead(s). The advanced molecular docking used the crystallography structure of SARS-CoV-2-cysteine-like protease (SARS-CoV-2-3CL pro ) as a target. In total, seventy-eight phytochemicals with anti-CoV activity against different strains in cellular assays, were selected for this computational study, and compared with two existing repurposed FDA-approved drugs: lopinavir and ritonavir. This review brings insights in the potential application of phytochemicals and their derivatives, which could guide researchers to develop safe drugs against SARS-CoV-2.

Potential of Marine Terpenoids against SARS-CoV-2: An In Silico Drug Development Approach

“…In the meantime, worldwide laboratories share a massive amount of genomic information, which is most difficult to analyze without bioinformatics tools. Additionally, project many potential drugs and natural products against SARS-CoV-2 with the CADD platform [ 18 , 79 , 98 , 99 , 100 ]. At present, several tools and databases of bioinformatics are available for gene analysis to vaccine/drug development.…”

“…Mostly, systematic computational screening is the most cost−effective and resource-saving approach towards select the ‘lead’ candidate(s) in the current drug development module [ 18 , 23 , 89 , 101 ]. Overall, bioinformatics tools continuously explore hidden genomic information and mainly identified potential natural lead candidates from different sources against SARS-CoV-2 for further experimental study and validation [ 14 , 100 , 102 ].…”

“…From SAR analysis, cyclodecene (C 10 H 18 ), cyclohexene oxide (C 6 H 10 O), and γ-butyrolactone or dihydrofuran-2(3H)-one (C 4 H 6 O 2 ) with chlorine in each in all three structures. Indeed, the presence of two methyl butyrate, one methyl acetate with a methyl−like group attachment project many potential drugs and natural products against SARS-CoV-2 with the CADD platform [18,79,[98][99][100]. At present, several tools and databases of bioinformatics are available for gene analysis to vaccine/drug development.…”

Phytochemicals: Potential Lead Compounds for COVID-19 Therapeutics

“…However, these studies have fallen short of proving a preventive or therapeutic role for these phytochemicals against COVID19 infection in real-time. Nevertheless, they provide strong evidence that they can serve as potential lead molecules for either the therapy or the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection as well as other viral infections that might emerge in the future (Swain et al, 2021).…”

Phytochemicals as Potential Therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2–Induced Cardiovascular Complications: Thrombosis and Platelet Perspective

“…Based upon the viral-mediated inflammatory responses and diagnosis, there are many conventional drug trials ongoing which target the viral structural and nonstructural proteins, in addition to targeting ACE2 and other cytokines (Sanders et al, 2020). It has been earlier reported that the plant metabolites like alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, and lignins (Table 2) have shown their antiviral effects against rotavirus, influenza virus, dengue virus, hepatitis virus, and MERS-CoV as well as SARS-CoV (Swain et al, 2020) (Ghildiyal et al, 2020).…”