Role of heterocyclic compounds in SARS and SARS CoV-2 pandemic

Abstract

Coronaviruses have led to severe emergencies in the world since the outbreak of SARS CoV in 2002, followed by MERS CoV in 2012. SARS CoV-2, the novel pandemic caused by coronaviruses that began in December 2019 in China has led to a total of 24066076 confirmed cases and a death toll of 823572 as reported by World Health Organisation on 26 August, 2020, spreading to 213 countries and territories. However, there are still no vaccines or medications available till date against SARS coronaviruses which is an urgent requirement to control the current pandemic like situations. Since many decades, heterocyclic scaffolds have been explored exhaustively for their anticancer, antimalarial, anti-inflammatory, antitubercular, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antiviral and many more treatment capabilities. Therefore, through this review, we have tried to emphasize on the anticipated role of heterocyclic scaffolds in the design and discovery of the much-awaited anti-SARS CoV-2 therapy, by exploring the research articles depicting different heterocyclic moieties as targeting SARS, MERS and SARS CoV-2 coronaviruses. The heterocyclic motifs mentioned in the review can serve as crucial resources for the development of SARS coronaviruses treatment strategies.

One-Pot Synthesis and Molecular Modeling Studies of New Bioactive Spiro-Oxindoles Based on Uracil Derivatives as SARS-CoV-2 Inhibitors Targeting RNA Polymerase and Spike Glycoprotein

“…Additionally, purine derivatives have been shown to have significant antiviral action against a variety of viruses. Nucleoside analogs, based on purine moiety, were designed and analyzed for their activity against SARS-CoV using plaque reduction assay in SARS CoV Frankfurt-1 strain infected Vero E6 cells [ 13 ] ( Figure 2 ).…”

Synthesis of aspirin-curcumin mimic conjugates of potential antitumor and anti-SARS-CoV-2 properties

“…It is speedy spread to all continents of the world (about 230.4 million affected patients with 4.7 million deaths [61] ) exhibiting great challenge to the global health system due to lack of powerful clinical treatments. This is why WHO (World Health Organization) declared a pandemic COVID-19 (corona virus disease 2019) on March 11, 2020 [62] . Although previous coronaviral diseases were declared (SARS-CoV, Foshan, China, Nov. 2002 and MERS-CoV “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome”, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, June 2012) the current pandemic seems more aggressive due to the wide spreading and great number of deaths [63] .…”

Metal-Promoted Heterocyclization: A Heterosynthetic Approach to Face a Pandemic Crisis

“…N, S, and O are the most common heteroatoms, and their corresponding heterocycles can be found as the main structural units in synthetic pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, as well as widely present in nature in plant alkaloids, nucleic acids, anthocyanins, and flavones [ 19 ]. Drugs containing a heterocyclic moiety inside their structure show antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antidepressant, anti-HIV, antimalarial, and antiviral properties [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. In particular, the latter three properties are central in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 [ 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”