Nature Potential for COVID-19: Targeting SARS-CoV-2 Mpro Inhibitor with Bioactive Compound

Corona viruses were first identified in 1931 and SARS-CoV-2 is the most recent. COVID-19 is a pandemic that put most of the world on lockdown and the search for therapeutic drugs is still on-going. Therefore, this study uses in silico screening to identify natural bioactive compounds from fruits, herbaceous plants and marine invertebrates that are able to inhibit protease activity in SARS-CoV-2(PDB: 6LU7). We have used various screening strategies such as drug likeliness, antiviral activity value prediction, molecular docking, ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion), molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and MM/GBSA (molecular mechanics/generalized born and surface area continuum solvation). 17 compounds were shortlisted using Lipinski’s rule. 5 compounds revealed significantly good predicted antiviral activity values and out of them only 2 compounds, Macrolactin A and Stachyflin, showed good binding energy values of -9.22 and -8.00 kcal/mol within the binding pocket, catalytic residues (HIS 41 and CYS 145) of M^pro. These two compounds were further analyzed for their ADME properties. The ADME evaluation of these 2 compounds suggested that they could be effective as therapeutic agents for developing drugs for clinical trials. MD simulations showed that protein-ligand complexes of Macrolactin A and Stachyflin were stable for 100 nano seconds. The MM/GBSA calculations of M^pro – Macrolactin A complex indicated higher binding free energy (-42.58 ± 6.35 kcal/mol) with M^pro protein target receptor (6LU7). DCCM and PCA analysis on the residual movement in the MD trajectories confirmed the good stability on Macrolactin A bound state of 6LU7. This signify the stable conformation of 6LU7 with high binding energy with Macrolactin A. Thus, this study showed that Macrolactin A could be an effective therapeutical agent for SARS-CoV-2protease (6LU7) inhibition. Additional in vitro and in vivo validations are needed to determine efficacy and dose of Macrolactin A in biological systems.