Title:Natural Products: A Rich Source of Antiviral Drug Lead Candidates for the Management of COVID-19
Volume: 27
Issue: 33
Author(s): Yasanandana S. Wijayasinghe, Pravin Bhansali, Ronald E. Viola, Mohammad A. Kamal and Nitesh K. Poddar*
Affiliation:
- Department of Biosciences, Manipal University Jaipur, Dehmi Kalan, Jaipur-Ajmer Expressway, Jaipur 303007, Rajasthan,India
Keywords:
Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, traditional medicine, phytochemicals, natural products.
Abstract: Today, the world is suffering from the pandemic of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a respiratory
illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This pandemic is
the third fatal coronavirus outbreak that has already occurred in the 21st century. Even six months after its
emergence, hundreds of thousands of people are still being infected with SARS-CoV-2, and thousands of lives
are lost every day across the world. No effective therapy has been approved to date for the treatment of this
disease, suggesting the need to broaden the scope in the search for effective treatments. Throughout history,
folk medicine has been successfully used to treat various ailments in humans, and Traditional Chinese Medicine
has been instrumental in the containment of a number of viral diseases. Owing to their high chemical diversity
and safety profiles, natural products offer great promises as potentially effective antiviral drugs. In recent years,
a large number of anti-coronaviral phytochemicals with different mechanisms of action have been identified.
Among them, tetra-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose, caffeic acid, and saikosaponin B2 block viral entry. A number of
flavonoids inhibit viral proteases. Silvestrol inhibits protein synthesis. Myricetin and scutellarein inhibit viral
replication. Emodin, luteolin, and quercetin demonstrate anti-coronaviral activity by inhibiting multiple processes
in the virus life cycle. In this review, we critically evaluate the findings of the natural product-based anticoronaviral
research that has been published during the last two decades, and attempt to provide a comprehensive
description about their utility as potential broad-spectrum anti-coronaviral drugs, examining leads that may
guide/facilitate anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug development studies.
