One reason why COVID-19 is getting prolonged is because of the constant emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2).
These variants are known to have emerged because of the evolution of its genome.
As per the reports, as many as 3 severe pathogenic zoonotic disease outbreaks have taken place in the last few decades.
These mainly include SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
If you look at all the above coronavirus epidemics, SARS-CoV-2 has he biggest impact on both the economy and global healthcare system.
Scientists are able to develop vaccines against COVID-19 only after a thorough research. It’s actually based on the spike (S) protein of the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain.
But most of the recently developed vaccines were found to have reduced efficacy against specific SARS-CoV-2 variants like Delta and Omicron variants containing mutations in the S region.
Due to the constant mutation in the S region, it becomes difficult for them to develop vaccines as they won’t be effective against SARS-CoV-2.
Apart from developing such vaccines to work against SARS-CoV-2, there are various dangers associated in the form of side effects.
Some of the drugs like clozapine, atazanavir, ritonavir, azithromycin, and heparin pose certain side effects associated with hematopoietic and cardiovascular systems.
As compared to the above drugs, various plant based drugs or medicines are found effective without side effects against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
About the Study
Molecular docking is found to be one of the best silico methods which helps predict the link between biological and molecular levels.
In the present analysis, a total of 233 studies were conducted. All the plant metabolites identified were further sent for further introspection for their drug-likeness using the Molsoft database.
Future perspectives
Based on the traditional and existing feedback, the authors highlight a number of research gaps that can easily be improved in the future.
One example supporting this include some phytoconstituents that were identified to work against SARS-CoV-2 require chemical modification.
Journal reference:
Kushari, S., Hazarika, I., Laloo, D. et al. (2022). An integrated computational approach towards the screening of active plant metabolites as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2: an overview. Structural Chemistry. doi:10.1007/s11224-022-02066-z
Also Read: COVID-19 Linked With Worse Mental Health & Lower Life Satisfaction
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