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Identification of Potent COVID-19 Main Protease (Mpro) Inhibitors from Natural Polyphenols: An in Silico Strategy Unveils a Hope against CORONA

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Sevki Adem,Volkan Eyupoglu,

Iqra Sarfraz,

Azhar Rasul^*

Muhammad Ali

Sevki Adem,Volkan Eyupoglu,

Iqra Sarfraz,

Azhar Rasul^*

Muhammad Ali

This version is not peer-reviewed

This preprints belongs to the Collection

Preprints on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2

Submitted:

21 March 2020

Posted:

23 March 2020

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Abstract

COVID-19, a rapidly spreading new strain of coronavirus, has affected more than 150 countries and received worldwide attention. The lack of efficacious drugs or vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 has further worsened the situation. Thus, there is an urgent need to boost up research for the development of effective therapeutics and affordable diagnostic against COVID-19. The crystallized form of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) was demonstrated by a Chinese researcher Liu et al. (2020) which is a novel therapeutic drug target. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of medicinal plant-based bioactive compounds against COVID-19 Mpro by molecular docking study. Molecular docking investigations were performed by using Molegro Virtual Docker 7 to analyze the inhibition probability of these compounds against COVID-19. COVID-19 Mpro was docked with 80 flavonoid compounds and the binding energies were obtained from the docking of (PDB ID: 6LU7: Resolution 2.16 Å) with the native ligand. According to obtained results, hesperidin, rutin, diosmin, apiin, diacetylcurcumin, (E)-1-(2-Hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-3-[3-[(E)-3-(2-hydroxy-4- methoxyphenyl)-3-oxoprop-1-enyl]phenyl]prop-2-en-1-one, and beta,beta'-(4-Methoxy-1,3- phenylene)bis(2'-hydroxy-4',6'-dimethoxyacrylophenone have been found as more effective on COVID-19 than nelfinavir. So, this study will pave a way for doing advanced experimental research to evaluate the real medicinal potential of these compounds to cure COVID-19.

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Subject: Medicine and Pharmacology - Pathology and Pathobiology

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