Microbial Iron Chelators: A Possible Adjuncts for Therapeutic Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 like Viruses

There is a need for targeted, effective antiviral therapeutic treatment for the global threat of COVID-19, like viral pandemics. Our efforts in this direction present the in-silico testing of a hypothesis through molecular docking. We have demonstrated the possibility of a microbial siderophore desferrioxamine-E produced by Pseudomonas stutzeri SGM-1 for effective drug targeting and drug development against SARS-CoV-2, like viruses. Iron homeostasis and COVID-19 have a close relationship. An iron chelator desferrioxamine-E binding with the SARS-CoV-2 virus can inhibit the viral RNA binding and packaging into the new virions inside the host cell. The well-known efficacy of iron chelation and RNA binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid interaction of desferrioxamine-E studied through molecular docking has promising potential for exploring microbial iron chelators as adjuncts for in-silico clinical trials and randomized clinical trials.