SIDDHA FORMULATIONS IN COVID-19: POTENTIAL BIO-ACTIVE COMPOUNDS OF KABASURA KUDINEER AGAINST SARS-COV-2 VIRUS - A MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDY

Introduction/ Purpose Kabasura kudineer, a medicinal concoction used in Siddha system of medicine includes 15 plant components with numerous bio-active compounds. These compounds are found to be used for various clinical purposes including respiratory, gastrointestinal and bacterial infections. Thus in this study we aimed to study the potential of bio-active compounds of Kabasura kudineer against three different proteins of SARS-CoV-2 virus namely - Spike protein, Protease and RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) using molecular docking technique. Methods The bio-active compound molecules of the Kabasura kudineer concoction were extracted using SMILES String method from PubChem and subjected against three protein molecular structures of virus retrieved from protein data bank. The molecular docking procedure was performed using Chimera v1.14 and AutoDock Vina v1.12 platform. Results The receptors subjected to molecular docking showed existence of negative binding energy between the molecules and the affinity was found to be higher against RdRP than other two proteins. Among all the bio-active compounds – Terflavin B and Ellagic acid of plant Kadukkaithol showed higher binding energy against all the proteins of SARS-CoV-2 proteins. Conclusion Thus, the compounds thus proved to have anti-viral potential that may help to inhibit the replication of virus and contain the spread.