Addressing the potential role of curcumin in the prevention of COVID-19 by targeting the Nsp9 replicase protein through molecular docking

Kumar, Mohit; Sodhi, Kushneet Kaur; Singh, Dileep Kumar

The pandemics have always been a destructive carrier to living organisms. Humans are the ultimate victims, as now we are facing the SARS CoV-2 virus caused COVID-19 since its emergence in Dec 2019, at Wuhan (China). Due to the new coronavirus’ unexplored nature, we shed light on curcumin for its potential role against the disease. The Nsp9 replicase protein, which plays an essential role in virus replication, was extracted online, followed by 3D PDB model prediction with its validation. The in silico molecular docking of curcumin with the replicase enzyme gave insights into the preventive measures against the virus as curcumin showed multiple interactions with Nsp9 replicase. The current study showed the use of curcumin against the coronavirus and its possible role in developing medicine against it. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00203-020-02163-9.