Botanical inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 viral entry: a phylogenetic perspective

Abstract

Throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the use of botanical dietary supplements in the United States has increased, yet their safety and efficacy against COVID-19 remains underexplored. The Quave Natural Product Library is a phylogenetically diverse collection of botanical and fungal natural product extracts including popular supplement ingredients. Evaluation of 1867 extracts and 18 compounds for virus spike protein binding to host cell ACE2 receptors in a SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped virus system identified 310 extracts derived from 188 species across 76 families (3 fungi, 73 plants) that exhibited ≥ 50% viral entry inhibition activity at 20 µg/mL. Extracts exhibiting mammalian cytotoxicity > 15% and those containing cardiotoxic cardiac glycosides were eliminated. Three extracts were selected for further testing against four pseudotyped variants and infectious SARS-CoV-2 and were then further chemically characterized, revealing the potent (EC50 < 5 µg/mL) antiviral activity of Solidago altissima L. (Asteraceae) flowers and Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn (Dennstaedtiaceae) rhizomes.

Natural products as a source of Coronavirus entry inhibitors

“…These assays are routinely used to evaluate the neutralizing capability of patient sera against viruses including SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, Marburg, and Chikungunya virus ( Liu et al., 2017 ; Wu et al., 2017 ; Zhang et al., 2017 ; Nie et al., 2020 ; Donofrio et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, many recent studies have utilized pseudovirus assays in their analyses of potential NP-derived inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 viral entry, particularly those derived from plants ( Table 2 ) ( Goc et al., 2021b ; Li et al., 2021 ; Mei et al., 2021 ; Zhan et al., 2021 ; Zhang et al., 2021 ; González-Maldonado et al., 2022 ; Wang et al., 2022 ; Yi et al., 2022 ; Meng et al., 2023 ; Risener et al., 2023 ). While other classes of NPs such as honey and marine sponge metabolites show promising anti-entry activity, further research including analysis using methods such as pseudovirus assays is required to validate their efficacy, particularly against new variants of SARS-CoV-2.…”

Multitarget Mechanism of Artemisia Plants to Fight Respiratory Tract Infections Based on Network Pharmacology and Molecular Docking

“…12 Sesquiterpene lactones are mainly isolated from Asteraceae species, which were found in seven Artemisia species collected from Tajikistan, and exhibit the biological effects of inhibiting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). 13,14 As a whole, Artemisia species displays pharmacological effects in the prevention and treatment of RTI, but more research is needed to determine the underlying pharmacological processes.…”