Screening Of Potent Inhibitors Against 2019 Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) From Alliumsativum And Allium Cepa: An In Silico Approach

The infection of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the absence of any possible treatment options warrants the use of all available resources to find effective drugs against this scourge. Various ongoing researches have been searching for the new drug candidate against COVID-19 infection. The research objective is based on the molecular docking study of inhibition of the main protease of COVID-19 by natural compounds found in Allium sativum and Allium cepa. Lipinski rule of five and Autodock 4.2 was used by using the Lamarckian Genetic Algorithm to perform Molecular docking to analyze the probability of docking. Further, ADME analysis was also performed by using SwissADME, which is freely available on the web. In the present study, we identified S-Allylcysteine sulfoxide (Alliin), S-Propyl cysteine, S-Allylcysteine, S-Ethylcysteine, S-Allylmercaptocysteine, S-Methylcysteine, S-propyl L-cysteine with binding energies (-5.24, -4.49, -4.99, -4.91, -4.79, -4.76, -5.0 kcal/mol) as potential inhibitor candidates for COVID-19. Out of 7 selected compounds, alliin showed the best binding efficacy with target protein 6LU7. In silico ADME analysis revealed that these compounds are expected to have a standard drug-like property as well. Our findings propose that natural compounds from garlic and onion can be used as potent inhibitors against the main protease of COVID-19, which could be helpful in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.