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

Subramaniam, Mohana Devi; Venkatesan, Dhivya; Iyer, Mahalaxmi; Subbarayan, Sarathbabu; Govindasami, Vivekanandhan; Roy, Ayan; Narayanasamy, Arul; Kamalakannan, Siva; Gopalakrishnan, Abilash Valsala; Thangarasu, Raviminickam; Kumar, Nachimuthu Senthil; Vellingiri, Balachandar

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 has wide range of anti-inflammatory and anti-viral role.. 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 utilized for therapeutic purposes. This review provides recent advances in the anti-inflammatory and antiviral activities of biosurfactants 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 biosurfactants against COVID-19.