Schaftoside inhibits 3CL pro and PL pro of SARS-CoV-2 virus and regulates immune response and inflammation of host cells for the treatment of COVID-19.
Yi, Y., Zhang, M., Xue, H., Yu, R., Bao, Y.O., Kuang, Y., Chai, Y., Ma, W., Wang, J., Shi, X., Li, W., Hong, W., Li, J., Muturi, E., Wei, H., Wlodarz, J., Roszak, S., Qiao, X., Yang, H., Ye, M.(2022) Acta Pharm Sin B 12: 4154-4164
- PubMed: 35968270 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsb.2022.07.017
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7V7M - PubMed Abstract: 
It is an urgent demand worldwide to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. The 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL pro ) and papain-like protease (PL pro ) are key targets to discover SARS-CoV-2 inhibitors. After screening 12 Chinese herbal medicines and 125 compounds from licorice, we found that a popular natural product schaftoside inhibited 3CL pro and PL pro with IC 50 values of 1.73 ± 0.22 and 3.91 ± 0.19 μmol/L, respectively, and inhibited SARS-CoV-2 virus in Vero E6 cells with EC 50 of 11.83 ± 3.23 μmol/L. Hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry analysis, quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics calculations, together with site-directed mutagenesis indicated the antiviral activities of schaftoside were related with non-covalent interactions with H41, G143 and R188 of 3CL pro , and K157, E167 and A246 of PL pro . Moreover, proteomics analysis and cytokine assay revealed that schaftoside also regulated immune response and inflammation of the host cells. The anti-inflammatory activities of schaftoside were confirmed on lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury mice. Schaftoside showed good safety and pharmacokinetic property, and could be a promising drug candidate for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
Organizational Affiliation: 
State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China.