ABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has led to a worldwide crisis. In view of emerging variants time to time, there is a pressing need of effective COVID-19 therapeutics. Setomimycin, a rare tetrahydroanthracene antibiotic, remained unexplored for its therapeutic uses. Herein, we report our investigations on the potential of setomimycin as COVID-19 therapeutic. Pure setomimycin was isolated from Streptomyces sp. strain RA-WS2 from NW Himalayan region followed by establishing in silico as well as in vitro anti-SARS-CoV-2 property of the compound against SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro). It was found that the compound targets Mpro enzyme with an IC50 value of 12.02 ± 0.046 µM. The molecular docking study revealed that the compound targets Glu166 residue of Mpro enzyme, hence preventing dimerization of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro monomer. Additionally, the compound also exhibited anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant property, suggesting that setomimycin may be a viable option for application against COVID-19 infections.