Saravanan KM, Zhang H, Senthil R, Vijayakumar KK, Sounderrajan V, Wei Y, Shakila H. Structural basis for the inhibition of SARS-CoV2 main protease by Indian medicinal plant-derived antiviral compounds.
J Biomol Struct Dyn 2020;
40:1970-1978. [PMID:
33073712 PMCID:
PMC7594188 DOI:
10.1080/07391102.2020.1834457]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) has caused a major outbreak in humans around the globe, and it became a severe threat to human healthcare than all other infectious diseases. Researchers were urged to discover and test various approaches to control and prevent such a deadly disease. Considering the emergency and necessity, we screened reported antiviral compounds present in the traditional Indian medicinal plants for the inhibition of SARS-CoV2 main protease. In this study, we used molecular docking to screen 41 reported antiviral compounds that exist in Indian medicinal plants and shown amentoflavone from the plant Torreyanucifera with a higher docking score. Furthermore, we performed a 40 ns atomic molecular dynamics simulation and free binding energy calculations to explore the stability of the top five protein–ligand complexes. Through the article, we insist that the amentoflavone, hypericin and Torvoside H from the traditional Indian medicinal plants may be used as a potential inhibitor of SARS-CoV2 main protease and further biochemical experiments could shed light on understanding the mechanism of inhibition by these plant-derived antiviral compounds.
Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
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