Pentagalloylglucose, a phytochemical from Terminalia chebula can efficiently prevent SARS-CoV-2 entry: In Silico study

Abstract

COVID-19 is the current health challenge across the world. It originated in Wuhan, China, and has now spread to more than 180 countries. It is a zoonotic disease which spreads through droplets. The severity of disease is likely to end with the discovery of vaccines only. Researchers are repurposing drugs to fill the gap between COVID-19 and vaccine designing. Broad-spectrum antiviral drugs are preferred but they exhibit side effects. We have screened pentagalloylglucose present in Terminalia chebula which can prevent SARS-CoV-2 entry to the host cell. In this study, we have taken 8 active phytochemicals of Terminalia chebula which include gallic acid, chebulic acid, chebulanin, neochebulinic acid, ellagic acid, chebulagic acid, chebulinic acid, and pentagalloyglucose against spike proteins (S1 and S2), Replicase Polyprotein, 3C-like protease (3CL pro), Papain-like protease (PLpro), RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) of SARS-CoV-2. HADDOCK online server, Discovery Studio Visualizer and PyRx Vina tools were used to screen the potential component from T. chebula. It was analysed that pentagalloylglucose can be a better phytochemical against spike protein S1 similar to hemagglutinin of influenza virus. This phytochemical can be further used as a drug against SARS-CoV-2.