Pharmacotherapeutic Potential of Natural Products to Target the SARS-CoV-2 PLpro Using Molecular Screening and Simulation Approaches

Because of the essential role of PLpro in the regulation of replication and dysregulation of the host immune sensing, it is considered a therapeutic target for novel drug development. To reduce the risk of immune evasion and vaccine effectiveness, small molecular therapeutics are the best complementary approach. Hence, we used a structure-based drug-designing approach to identify potential small molecular inhibitors for PLpro of SARS-CoV-2. Initial scoring and re-scoring of the best hits revealed that three compounds NPC320891 (2,2-Dihydroxyindene-1,3-Dione), NPC474594 (Isonarciclasine), and NPC474595 (7-Deoxyisonarciclasine) exhibit higher docking scores than the control GRL0617. Investigation of the binding modes revealed that alongside the essential contacts, i.e., Asp164, Glu167, Tyr264, and Gln269, these molecules also target Lys157 and Tyr268 residues in the active site. Moreover, molecular simulation demonstrated that the reported top hits also possess stable dynamics and structural packing. Furthermore, the residues’ flexibility revealed that all the complexes demonstrated higher flexibility in the regions 120–140, 160–180, and 205–215. The 120–140 and 160–180 lie in the finger region of PLpro, which may open/close during the simulation to cover the active site and push the ligand inside. In addition, the total binding free energy was reported to be − 32.65 ± 0.17 kcal/mol for the GRL0617-PLpro, for the NPC320891-PLpro complex, the TBE was − 35.58 ± 0.14 kcal/mol, for the NPC474594-PLpro, the TBE was − 43.72 ± 0.22 kcal/mol, while for NPC474595-PLpro complex, the TBE was calculated to be − 41.61 ± 0.20 kcal/mol, respectively. Clustering of the protein’s motion and FEL further revealed that in NPC474594 and NPC474595 complexes, the drug was seen to have moved inside the binding cavity along with the loop in the palm region harboring the catalytic triad, thus justifying the higher binding of these two molecules particularly. In conclusion, the overall results reflect favorable binding of the identified hits strongly than the control drug, thus demanding in vitro and in vivo validation for clinical purposes.