Bioactive Terpenes and Their Derivatives as Potential SARS-CoV-2 Proteases Inhibitors from Molecular Modeling Studies

  • Biomolecules. 2021 Jan 7;11(1):74. doi: 10.3390/biom11010074.
Lúcio Ricardo Leite Diniz  1 ,  Yunierkis Perez-Castillo  2 ,  Hatem A Elshabrawy  3 ,  Carlos da Silva Maia Bezerra Filho  4 ,  Damião Pergentino de Sousa  4
Affiliations
  • 1. College of Nordeste da Bahia, Coronel João Sá 48590-000, Brazil.
  • 2. Bio-Cheminformatics Research Group and Escuela de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito 170125, Ecuador.
  • 3. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Sam Houston State University, Conroe, TX 77304, USA.
  • 4. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa 58051-900, Brazil.
PMID: 33430299 DOI: 10.3390/biom11010074
Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is caused by a novel coronavirus; the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Millions of cases and deaths to date have resulted in a global challenge for healthcare systems. COVID-19 has a high mortality rate, especially in elderly individuals with pre-existing chronic comorbidities. There are currently no effective therapeutic approaches for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. Therefore, the identification of effective therapeutics is a necessity. Terpenes are the largest class of natural products that could serve as a source of new drugs or as prototypes for the development of effective pharmacotherapeutic agents. In the present study, we discuss the Antiviral activity of these natural products and we perform simulations against the Mpro and PLpro Enzymes of SARS-CoV-2. Our results strongly suggest the potential of these compounds against human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords
COVID-19; MERS-CoV; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Virus; SARS-CoV; SARS-CoV-2; natural products; plants; saponins; terpenoid; viruses.
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