Background: Since the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 to date, there is no available approved drug or definitive treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 viral infection, and the identification of novel hits against therapeutic targets has become a global emergency. Echinacea purpurea is a traditional herb utilized to treat cough, fever, sore throat, respiratory tract infection, and so on as an immune stimulant. In this study, in silico molecular docking approach was used to screen phytocompounds from E. purpurea against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 main protease 3C-like protease (3CLpro) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus main peptidase (96% sequence similarity) to blunt the viral gene expression and viral replication.
Chlorogenic acid may be a potent inhibitor of dimeric SARS-CoV-2 main protease 3 CLpro: an in silico study