Evaluating Cepharanthine Analogues as Natural Drugs Against SARS-CoV-2
October 2021
TLDR Cepharanthine and tetrandrine show promise as COVID-19 drugs.
The study evaluated 24 cepharanthine analogues for their potential as COVID-19 drugs by predicting their binding affinities to key SARS-CoV-2 proteins using molecular docking simulations. Cepharanthine and tetrandrine were further tested in a cell-based SARS-CoV-2 infection assay, showing IC50 values of 1.90 µM and 10.37 µM, respectively. The research suggested that the diphenyl ester moiety could be a key pharmacophore for these analogues.
