Structure Based Screening Of Fungal Bioactive Metabolites As Potential Inhibitors Of Main Protease (Mpro) Of SARS-CoV-2

Abstract The pandemic disease COVID-19 has put the world into a massive threat. Till now no effective treatment has been established and the world is applying lockdowns as a preventive measure against this. Recent studies have identified that COVID-19 main protease (Mpro) is essential for its life cycle and is responsible for the proteolytic mutation of this virus. Thus, destruction of the complete viral particle can be achieved through inhibition of this main protease. The fungal metabolites have already been proved as potential antimicrobial agents hence were selected for in-silico molecular docking, to check their affinity towards COVID-19 main protease. Metabolites like 2H-oxecin-3-one,3,4,7,8,9,10hexahydro-4-methoxy-10-methyl, Eicosanoic acid phenylmethyl ester, HEPES, 2,4-dihydroxy,2,5-dimethyl-furan(3)one and Dodecanoic acid-3-hydroxy have revealed strong binding affinity towards the main protease. Thus, the present study enlightens a path to combat COVID-19 by the use of bioactive metabolites.