Gossypetin Derivatives are also Putative Inhibitors of SARS-COV 2: Results of a Computational Study

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is the third most highly virulent human coronavirus of the 21st century. It is linked with fatal respiratory illness. Currently, there are still no effective treatments of Covid-19. Among many drugs evaluated, few have proven conclusive clinical efficacy. Furthermore, the spread of the disease mandates that ideal medications against Covid-19 be cheap and available worldwide. Therefore, there is a rationale to evaluate whether treatments of natural origin from aromatic and medicinal plants have the ability to prevent and/or treat COVID-19. We evaluated in this study the inhibition of COVID-19 protease by natural plants compounds such as Gossypetin-3'-O-glucoside (G3'G). G3'G has been isolated from the petals of Talipariti elatum Sw. found almost exclusively in Martinique. It has no crystallography or modelisation studies. Antifungal and antioxidant properties are already published. We study its binding affinity so potential inhibition capability against SARS-CoV2 3CLpro mean protease as compared to other previously tested natural or pharmacological molecules by molecular docking. We propose Gossypetin derivatives as good tropical natural compounds candidate that should be further investigated to prevent or treat COVID19.