The Potential Therapeutic Effect of RNA Interference and Natural Products on COVID-19: A Review of the Coronaviruses Infection

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 virus was reported for the first time in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and causes respiratory infection. This pandemic pneumonia killed about 1,437,835 people out of 61,308,161cases up to November 27, 2020. The disease’s main clinical complications include fever, recurrent coughing, shortness of breath, acute respiratory syndrome, and failure of vital organs that could lead to death. It has been shown that natural compounds with antioxidant, anticancer, and antiviral activities and RNA interference agents could play an essential role in preventing or treating coronavirus infection by inhibiting the expression of crucial virus genes. This study aims to introduce a summary of coronavirus’s genetic and morphological structure and determine the role of miRNAs, siRNAs, chemical drugs, and natural compounds in stimulating the immune system or inhibiting the virus’s structural and non-structural genes that are essential for replication and infection of SARS-CoV-2.

SARS-CoV-2: Current trends in emerging variants, pathogenesis, immune responses, potential therapeutic, and vaccine development strategies

“…Also, miR-155, an inflammation-associated miRNA, is overexpressed in SARS-CoV-2 infected cell lines, and elimination of this miRNA may decrease pulmonary injuries of COVID-19 infection. [264] , [267] , [273] , [274] , [275] , [276] Anti-inflammatory agents Glucocorticoids (Dexamethasone) Glucocorticoids may modulate inflammation-mediated lung injury and reduce. low doses of Dexamethasone reduced 28-day mortality in the presence of receiving respiratory support, also may benefit in presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), septic shock, or ARDS.…”

Targeting Multiple Signal Transduction Pathways of SARS-CoV-2: Approaches to COVID-19 Therapeutic Candidates

“…In addition to phenolic compounds and alkaloids, terpenoids could also contain auspicious natural plant-derived secondary metabolites for combating COVID-19 [ 269 ]. As a triterpenoid compound, glycyrrhizin has been successfully applied to mitigate virus-induced inflammatory cascades and viral replication [ 270 , 271 ].…”

Efficacy and sustainability of natural products in COVID-19 treatment development: opportunities and challenges in using agro-industrial waste from Citrus and apple

“…The goal of these tests is to predict which metabolites may interact with the enzyme and protein involved in the SARS-CoV-2 inoculation mechanism, with the viral RNA directly ( Figure 1 ), or treat the infection symptoms (e.g. inflammation of upper respiratory tract and obstructive pulmonary disease) [ 44 ].…”

“…For instance, phytotherapy derived from honey ( Echinacea species) are recognized as anti-inflammatory, cardio protectors, and antivirals against influenza, HIV, herpes and rubella [ 64 ]. As Echinacea metabolites are serine protease inhibitors, they can be used in the treatment of the beforementioned clinical conditions of SARS-CoV-2 [ 44 ] .…”