Potential therapeutic effect of turmeric contents against SARS-CoV-2 compared with experimental COVID-19 therapies: in silico study

Abstract

Inspired by the ‘There is no scientific evidence that turmeric prevents COVID-19’ statement made by WHO, the protective or therapeutic potential of the compounds in turmeric contents was investigated against COVID-19 with in silico methodology. The drugs used for experimental COVID-19 therapies were included in this study using the same method for comparison with turmeric components. The 30 turmeric compounds and nine drugs were performed in the docking procedure for vital proteins of COVID-19. With evaluations based on docking scores, the Prime MMGBSA binding free energy and protein-ligand interactions were identified in detail. The 100 ns MD simulations were also performed to assess the stability of the ligands at the binding site of the target proteins. The Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) is used to obtain the average displacement for a particular frame concerning a reference frame. The results of this study are suggesting that turmeric spice have a potential to inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 vital proteins and can be use a therapeutic or protective agent against SARS-CoV-2 via inhibiting key protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The compound 4, 23 and 6 are the most prominent inhibitor for the main protease, the spike glycoprotein and RNA polymerase of virus, respectively. The MD simulation validated the stability of ligand-protein interactions. The compactness of the complexes was shown using a radius of gyration. ADME properties of featured compounds are in range of 95% drug molecules. It is hoped that the outputs of this study will contribute to the struggle of humanity with COVID-19.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Keywords:

• SARS-CoV-2
• COVID-19 drug
• turmeric
• spike glycoprotein
• RNA polymerase
• main protease
• molecular docking
• MMGBSA
• ADME
• molecular dynamic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Acknowledgements

The numerical calculations reported in this paper were partially performed at TUBITAK ULAKBIM, High Performance, and Grid Computing Center (TRUBA resources).