We are very pleased to introduce Suresh Kumar Mohankumar and Jubie Selvaraj, corresponding and first authors of the paper ‘Identification of (2R,3R)-2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)chroman-3-yl-3,4,5-trihydroxy benzoate as multiple inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 targets; a systematic molecular modelling approach‘. Their article has been very well received and handpicked by our reviewers and handling editors as one of our HOT articles. Suresh and Jubie told us more about the work that went into this article and what they hope to achieve in the future. You can find out more about the authors and their article below and find more HOT articles in our online collection.
Could you briefly explain the focus of your article to the non-specialist (in one or two sentences only) and why it is of current interest?
Nature’s oldest pharmacy has always been a treasure of novel drugs and medicines, and should any of these compounds assist us in battling the COVID-19 pandemic? We have screened and sorted the natural compounds that can fight against COVID-19 in more than one way using the artificial intelligence-aided computer program to answer this.
How big an impact could your results potentially have?
Our findings suggested that one of the compounds in Green Tea can protect/battle with coronavirus virtually. It is still a preliminary step, but it urges further research to establish the scientific shreds of evidence for its safe use in clinics.
Could you explain the motivation behind this study?
As basic researchers in the pharmaceutical sciences, we thought of possible contributions to managing the most devastating pandemic.
In your opinion, what are the key design considerations for your study?
• The systematic molecular modeling approach
• Poly targeting: Can the bioactive work in more than one possible way?
• Structure-based analogs synthesis and its impact
Which part of the work towards this paper proved to be most challenging?
Sorting natural compounds that can work on multiple anti-covid targets and designing the analogs were the most challenging.
What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
The sorted compound, gallocatechin, is present in Green tea, could be readily available, accessible, and affordable if further studies and proven clinically safe for use to prevent or treat COVID-19.
What is the next step? What work is planned?
We need to establish that the sorted lead works biologically, as hypothesized. We welcome potential collaborators and partners to further this up with relevant pre-clinical and clinical studies.
Identification of (2R,3R)-2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)chroman-3-yl-3,4,5-trihydroxy benzoate as multiple inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 targets; a systematic molecular modelling approach
Jubie Selvaraj, Shyam Sundar P, Logesh Rajan, Divakar Selvaraj, Dhanabal Palanisamy, Krishnan Namboori PK and Suresh Kumar Mohankumar
RSC Adv., 2021,11, 13051-13060
DOI: 10.1039/D1RA01603B, Paper
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