Biosurfactants and anti-inflammatory activity: A potential new approach towards COVID-19

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has grown to be global public health emergency. The biosurfactants (BSs) are surface-active biomolecules with unique properties and wide applications. Several microbes synthesize secondary metabolites with surface-active properties, which have a wide range of anti-inflammatory and anti-viral roles. The monocytes and neutrophils are activated by bacteria, which subsequently result in high secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, Il-18 and IL-1β) and toll-like receptors-2 (TLR-2). Following the inflammatory response, BSs induce the production of cationic proteins, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lysozyme, and thus can be used for therapeutic purposes. This article provides recent advances in the anti-inflammatory and antiviral activities of BSs and discusses the potential use of these compounds against COVID-19, highlighting the need for in-vitro and in-vivo approaches to confirm this hypothesis. This suggestion is necessary because there are still no studies that have focused on the use of BSs against COVID-19.

Keywords: Biosurfactants (BSs); Cytokine storm; Immunomodulatory; Microorganisms; SARS-CoV-2.

Figure 1

Anti-inflammatory role of biosurfactants (BSs) against COVID-19: The above image depicts the hypothetical role of BSs as anti-inflammatory agents against COVID-19. When the SARS-CoV-2 enters the cell, it binds to the ACE2 receptor following which the TMPRSS2 helps in the cleavage of S protein into S1 and S2 subunits. Subsequently, the viral replication gets initiated resulting into NF-κB pathway, which stimulates the release of cytokine storm. In this condition, providing the COVID-19 patients with BSs along with other drugs promises to suppress the production of NF-κB by triggering the heme-oxidase 1 and TH1 macrophages, which in turn would reduce the effect of cytokine storm and inflammation in the patinets affected with COVID-19.

Figure 2

Possible anti-viral activity of biosurfactants (BSs) on SARS-CoV-2: On SARS-CoV-2 infection, BSs act on viral structures (spike protein and lipid envelope) and ruptures the outer membrane and makes the virus inactive by targeting the genetic material. Once the viral structures are disrupted it forms as a micelle and engulfs the structural parts and breaks down the materials to make it inactive.