Naturally Occurring Bioactives as Antivirals: Emphasis on Coronavirus Infection

Seyed Abdulmajid Ayatollahi; Javad Sharifi-Rad; Patrick Valere Tsouh Fokou; Gail B Mahady; Hafiz Ansar Rasul Suleria; Shivani Krishna Kapuganti; Kundlik Gadhave; Rajanish Giri; Neha Garg; Rohit Sharma; Daniel Ribeiro; Célia F Rodrigues; Željko Reiner; Yasaman Taheri; Natália Cruz-Martins

doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.575877

Naturally Occurring Bioactives as Antivirals: Emphasis on Coronavirus Infection

Front Pharmacol. 2021 Jun 29:12:575877. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.575877. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Seyed Abdulmajid Ayatollahi^{1

2

3}, Javad Sharifi-Rad¹, Patrick Valere Tsouh Fokou⁴, Gail B Mahady⁵, Hafiz Ansar Rasul Suleria⁶, Shivani Krishna Kapuganti⁷, Kundlik Gadhave⁷, Rajanish Giri⁷, Neha Garg⁸, Rohit Sharma⁹, Daniel Ribeiro^{10

11}, Célia F Rodrigues¹², Željko Reiner¹³, Yasaman Taheri¹, Natália Cruz-Martins^{14

15

16}

Affiliations

¹ Phytochemistry Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Pharmacognosy and Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon.
⁵ Department of Pharmacy Practice, PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
⁶ Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁷ School of Basic Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi, India.
⁸ Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
⁹ Department of Rasa Shastra and Bhaishajya Kalpana, Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
¹⁰ Northern Superior Health School of the Portuguese Red Cross, Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal.
¹¹ Instituto de Investigação e Formação Avançada em Ciências e Tecnologias da Saúde, Rua Central de Gandra, Gandra, Portugal.
¹² LEPABE-Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
¹³ Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
¹⁴ Laboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
¹⁵ Department of Biomedicine/Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
¹⁶ Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Abstract

The current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak is a significant threat to human health and the worldwide economy. Coronaviruses cause a variety of diseases, such as pneumonia-like upper respiratory tract illnesses, gastroenteritis, encephalitis, multiple organ failure involving lungs and kidneys which might cause death. Since the pandemic started there have been more than 107 million COVID-19 infections caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and ∼2.4 million deaths globally. SARS-CoV-2 is easily transmitted from person-to-person and has spread quickly across all continents. With the continued increase in morbidity and mortality caused by COVID-19, and the damage to the global economy, there is an urgent need for effective prevention and treatment strategies. The advent of safe and effective vaccines has been a significant step forward in the battle against COVID-19, however treatment of the symptoms associated with the disease still requires new anti-viral and anti-inflammatory drug therapies. To this end, scientists have been investigating available natural products that may be effective against SARS-CoV-2, with some products showing promise in fighting several viral infections. Since many natural products are dietary components or are prepared as dietary supplements people tend to consider them safer than synthetic drugs. For example, Traditional Chinese Medicines have been effectively utilized to treat SARS-CoV-2 infected patients with promising results. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of COVID-19 therapies and the therapeutic potential of medicinal plant extracts and natural compounds for the treatment of several viral infections, with special emphasis on SARS-CoV-2 infection. Realistic strategies that can be employed for the effective use of bioactive compounds for anti-SARS-CoV-2 research are also provided.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2; bioactive compounds; natural compounds.

Publication types

Review