Int J Antimicrob Agents . LPD-12, a Promising Lipopeptide to Control COVID-19

[tetano]

Int J Antimicrob Agents


. 2020 Nov 6;106218.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.106218. Online ahead of print.
LPD-12, a Promising Lipopeptide to Control COVID-19


Trinath Chowdhury ¹ , Piyush Baindara ² , Santi M Mandal ³



Affiliations

• PMID: 33166692
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.106218

Abstract

The recent pandemic outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 associated with lethal atypical pneumonia COVID-19 is an urgent public health issue with an increasing rate of mortality and morbidity. Currently, there are no vaccines or therapeutics available for COVID-19 that demands an urgent search for a new drug to combat the pandemic of COVID-19. Lipid membrane alternation efficiency of small antimicrobial lipopeptides makes them able to block the viral membrane fusion to the host cell. Lipopeptides could serve as potential antiviral agents by interacting or competing with viral fusion proteins. Here, we screened seven different lipopeptides (tsushimycin, daptomycin, surfactin, bacillomycin, iturin, srfTE, LPD-12) and docked individually against spike (S)-glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2. Based on the maximum docked score and minimum atomic contact energy, LPD-12 (-1137.38 kcal) is chosen appropriate molecule for proper binding with the S glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 and thus significantly interrupt its affinity of binding with angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), the only receptor molecule facilitates in disease development. Results confirm a strong binding affinity of LPD-12 with ACE2 with a binding free energy of -1621.62 kcal which can also prevent the binding of S-protein, reciprocally. Thus it can be concluded that LPD-12 may act as a potential therapeutic drug by reducing the entry of SARS-CoV-2 to the human cells via ACE2 receptor and related infections.

Keywords: COVID-19; Lipopeptide; docking; fusion protein; novel coronavirus.