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Over the past year, owing to the emergent demand for the search for potential COVID-19 therapeutics, identifying alternative candidates from biological sources is one of the sustainable ways to reinforce the drug discovery process. Marine macroalgae have numerous advantages because of the richest availability of underexploited bioactive compounds. Polyphenolic compounds like phlorotannins obtained from brown macroalgae are reported as proven antiviral and immunostimulatory agents. Thus, the present study evaluated the possibility of phlorotannins as antagonists to the multiple target proteins essential for SARS-CoV-2 replication. Twenty different types of potent phlorotannins were targeted against druggable target proteins, viz., 3CLpro, RdRp, and Spro using AutoDock molecular docking, drug-likeness were assessed by ADMET profiling (QikProp module). Further, validated with 200 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation (Desmond module) for the top-ranked phlorotannins based on docking binding affinities. Among the twenty phlorotannins studied, eckol hexacetate, phlorofucofuroeckol, fucofuroeckol, and bifuhalol-hexacetate showed significant binding affinities across the selected targets. Besides, MD simulations highlighted Glu166, Gln189, Cys145, and Thr190 tetrad as potential interaction sites to inhibit 3CLpro's activity. Moreover, phlorotannins were confirmed to be druglike, with no major deviation observed in ADMET-profiling. Hence, phlorotannins could be therapeutic candidates against SARS-CoV-2. However, further investigations are needed to prove its efficacy as an antiviral agent. Conclusively, this study may envisage that the novel finding could notably impact the advancement of antiviral interventions for COVID-19 in the near future.

Probing marine brown macroalgal phlorotannins as antiviral candidate against SARS-CoV-2: molecular docking and dynamics simulation approach