Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Aug 19:13:926507.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.926507. eCollection 2022.

Bioactive natural products in COVID-19 therapy

Zhonglei Wang  1   2 , Ning Wang  3 , Liyan Yang  4 , Xian-Qing Song  3
Affiliations
Review

Bioactive natural products in COVID-19 therapy

Zhonglei Wang et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

The devastating COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than six million deaths worldwide during the last 2 years. Effective therapeutic agents are greatly needed, yet promising magic bullets still do not exist. Numerous natural products (cordycepin, gallinamide A, plitidepsin, telocinobufagin, and tylophorine) have been widely studied and play a potential function in treating COVID-19. In this paper, we reviewed published studies (from May 2021 to April 2022) relating closely to bioactive natural products (isolated from medicinal plants, animals products, and marine organisms) in COVID-19 therapy in vitro to provide some essential guidance for anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug research and development.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cordycepin; gallinamide A; natural products; plitidepsin; telocinobufagin; tylophorine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Promising natural products in COVID-19 therapy. (A) Tylophorine can be isolated from the medicinal plant Cynanchum komarovii AL. (B) Telocinobufagin can be isolated from the traditional medicinal animal toad Bufo gargarizans. (C) Gallinamide A can be isolated from the marine cyanobacteria Schizothrix genus. (D) Cordycepin can be isolated from the traditional medicine Cordyceps militaris Link. (E) Homofascaplysin A can be isolated from the marine sponge Fascaplysinopsis reticulata. (F) Wallichins C and D can be isolated from the medicinal fern Dryopteris wallichiana. (G) Licorice-saponin A3 and glycyrrhetinic acid can be isolated from the medicinal plant Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abdelmohsen U. R., Balasubramanian S., Oelschlaeger T. A., Grkovic T., Pham N. B., Quinn R. J., et al. (2017). Potential of marine natural products against drug-resistant fungal, viral, and parasitic infections. Lancet. Infect. Dis. 17 (2), e30–e41. 10.1016/S1473-3099(16)30323-1 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alam S., Sarker M., Rahman M., Afrin S., Richi F. T., Zhao C., et al. (2021). Traditional herbal medicines, bioactive metabolites, and plant products against COVID-19: Update on clinical trials and mechanism of actions. Front. Pharmacol. 12, 671498. 10.3389/fphar.2021.671498 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alhadrami H. A., Burgio G., Thissera B., Orfali R., Jiffri S. E., Yaseen M., et al. (2022). Neoechinulin A as a promising SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitor: In vitro and in silico study showing the ability of simulations in discerning active from inactive enzyme inhibitors. Mar. Drugs 20 (3), 163. 10.3390/md20030163 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alqathama A. A., Ahmad R., Alsaedi R. B., Alghamdi R. A., Abkar E. H., Alrehaly R. H., et al. (2022). The vital role of animal, marine, and microbial natural products against COVID-19. Pharm. Biol. 60 (1), 509–524. 10.1080/13880209.2022.2039215 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. An T. Y., Huang R. Q., Yang Z., Zhang D. K., Li G. R., Yao Y. C., et al. (2001). Alkaloids from Cynanchum komarovii with inhibitory activity against the tobacco mosaic virus. Phytochemistry 58 (8), 1267–1269. 10.1016/s0031-9422(01)00382-x - DOI - PubMed