Identification of bio-active food compounds as potential SARS-CoV-2 PLpro inhibitors-modulators via negative image-based screening and computational simulations

Despite significant studies on the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists around the world are still battling to find a definitive therapy against the ongoing severe global health crisis. In this study, advanced computational approaches have been employed to identify bioactive food constituents as potential SARS-CoV-2 PLpro inhibitors-modulators. As a validated antiviral drug target, PLpro has gained tremendous attention for therapeutics developments. Therefore, targeting the multifunctional SARS-CoV-2 PLpro protein, ∼1039 bioactive dietary compounds have been screened extensively through novel techniques like negative image-based (NIB) screening and molecular docking approaches. In particular, the three different models of NIB screening have been generated and used to re-score the dietary compounds based on the negative image which is created by reversing the shape and electrostatics features of PLpro protein’s ligand-binding cavity. Further, 100 ns molecular dynamics simulation has been performed and MM-GBSA based binding free energies have been estimated for the final proposed four dietary compounds (PC000550, PC000361, PC000558, and PC000573) as potential inhibitors/modulators of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro protein. Employed computational study outcome also has been compared with respect to the earlier experimentally investigated compound GRL0617 against SARS-CoV-2 PLpro protein, which suggests much greater interaction potential in terms of binding affinity and other energetic contributions for the proposed dietary compounds. Hence, the present study suggests that proposed dietary compounds can be suitable chemical entities for modulating the activity of PLpro protein or can be further utilized for optimizing or screening of novel chemical surrogates, however also needs experimental evaluation for entry in clinical studies for better assessment.