Potential of Ficus microcarpa metabolites against SARS-CoV-2 main protease supported by docking studies.

Hassan, Heba Ali; Abdelmohsen, Usama Ramadan; Aly, Omar M; Desoukey, Samar Y; Mohamed, Khaled M; Kamel, Mohamed S

COVID 19; an infectious disease; firstly identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China and has since spread globally, resulting in an ongoing pandemic. Searching for protease inhibitors is a challenging task in controlling COVID 19. Genus Ficus is known to be a rich source of phenolic compounds. Metabolic profiling of leaves methanolic extract of Ficus microcarpa (Moraceae) revealed nine compounds (1-9) mainly phenolics. Docking studies concerning these compounds against SARS-CoV-2 main protease showed that quercetin 3,7-O-α-L-dirhamnoside (1) and rutin (3) possessed significant binding stability at the N3 binding site in different activity degrees, which is comparable with COVID-19 main protease inhibitor, darunavir. Our study suggests that compounds quercetin 3,7-O-α-L-dirhamnoside and rutin might be potential candidates for the development of therapies against SARS-CoV-2.