Hypericin Inhibit Alpha-Coronavirus Replication by Targeting 3CL Protease.

ABSTRACT: The porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is an Alphacoronavirus (α-CoV) that causes high mortality in infected piglets, resulting in serious economic losses in the farming industry. Hypericin is a dianthrone compound that has been shown as an antiviral activity on several viruses. Here, we first evaluated the antiviral effect of hypericin in PEDV and found the viral replication and egression were significantly reduced with hypericin post-treatment. As hypericin has been shown in SARS-CoV-2 that it is bound to viral 3CLpro, we thus established a molecular docking between hypericin and PEDV 3CLpro using different software and found hypericin bound to 3CLpro through two pockets. These binding pockets were further verified by another docking between hypericin and PEDV 3CLpro pocket mu

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8473218 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature