A recent study shows that punicalagin has a promising inhibitory effect on the SARS-CoV-2 virus Main Protease
Since the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, several coronavirus proteins and enzymes have been proposed as targets to fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Among these targets, the main protease of the virus, also termed Mpro, has gained much attention due to its pivotal biological functions in the virus life cycle and the absence of similar homologs in humans. On the other hand, many investigations have shown that dietary polyphenols exhibit promise in SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibition using computational studies, but it is necessary to validate the theoretical results with experimental evidence.
In this work, Huifang Li and co-workers at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, have demonstrated experimentally that dietary hydrolyzable tannins, including punicalagin, exerted promising inhibitory effects on SARS-CoV-2 Mpro activity. The study was carried out by combining a biochemical assay, biophysical-based binding assays, and a computational approach. The higher concentration used (10 and 50 μM) inhibited SARS-CoV-2 Mpro (by 6.6−100.0% at 50 μM) and punicalagin bound directly to the Mpro protein. This study sheds light on the inhibitory effects of tannins and their metabolites on the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Article: Inhibitory Effects and Surface Plasmon Resonance-Based Binding Affinities of Dietary Hydrolyzable Tannins and Their Gut Microbial Metabolites on SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.1c03521#