Molecular Docking and Computational Exploration of Isolated Drugs from Daphne Species Against COVID-19

ABSTRACT

The SARS-CoV-2 has initiated in Wuhan city of China and then extend all around the world as a health emergency. It begins a new research area to produce potential drugs using data-driven approaches to identify potential therapies for the treatment of the virus. This is the time to develop specific antiviral drugs using molecular docking, quantum chemical approaches, and natural products. The protease inhibitors that constitute plant derivatives may become highly efficient to cure virus-prompted illnesses. A systematic study of isolated phytochemicals was executed then frontier molecular orbitals, docking score, molecular descriptors, and active sites were compared with favipiravir, dexamethasone, redeliver, and hydroxychloroquine which are being used against COVID19 nowadays. This is the first study on the phytochemicals of Daphne species to explore their anti-SARS-CoV-2 behavior by molecular docking and quantum chemical methods.