COVID-19, a global pandemic, has caused over 750,000 deaths worldwide as of August 2020. A vaccine or remedy for SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is necessary to slow down the spread and lethality of COVID-19. However, there is currently no effective treatment available against SARS-CoV-2. In this report, we demonstrated that EGCG and theaflavin, the main active ingredients of green tea and black tea, respectively, are potentially effective to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 activity. Coronaviruses require the 3CL-protease for the cleavage of its polyprotein to make individual proteins functional. EGCG and theaflavin showed inhibitory activity against the SARS-CoV-2 3CL-protease in a dose-dependent manner, and the half inhibitory concentration (IC 50 ) was 7.58 μ g/ml for EGCG and 8.44 μ g/ml for theaflavin. In addition, we did not observe any cytotoxicity for either EGCG or theaflavin at the concentrations tested up to 40 μ g/ml in HEK293T cells. These results suggest that upon further study, EGCG and theaflavin can be potentially useful to treat COVID-19.
【초록키워드】 COVID-19, Treatment, SARS-CoV-2, Vaccine, cytotoxicity, virus, global pandemic, Spread, Protein, death, cleavage, ingredient, EGCG, Concentration, dose-dependent manner, treat, inhibitory concentration, inhibitory activity, HEK293T cells, polyprotein, effective, observé, responsible, tested, caused, addition, functional, demonstrated, inhibit SARS-CoV-2, the SARS-CoV-2, 【제목키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, activity, EGCG, polyphenol, theaflavin, tea,