Molecular docking of anthocyanins and ternatin in Clitoria ternatea as coronavirus disease oral manifestation therapy

Abstract

Herbal active compound with immunoregulator ability is considered a potential therapy for COVID-19 oral manifestation by downregulating pro-inflammatory cytokine storm. Meanwhile, anthocyanin and ternatin are the active compounds in Clitoria ternatea, which may act as a potential immunoregulator for COVID-19 therapy. The intention of this investigation was to investigate anthocyanin and ternatin as active compounds in C. ternatea that may be able to increase anti-inflammatory cytokine and inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokine and key proteins of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study implemented bioinformatic approach to analyze anthocyanin and ternatin as active compounds in C. ternatea with anti- and pro-inflammatory cytokines and antiviral examination history through blind molecular docking study (in silico). Moreover, anthocyanins and ternatin were obtained from PubChem database by minimizing ligand structure in PyRx software to increase the flexibility. RCSB database was employed for preparing the protein samples consisting of interleukin (IL)-6, SARS-CoV-2-ACE2 glycoprotein complex, tumor necrosis factor-α receptor (TNF-αR), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), IL-6, IL-10, and human beta defensin-2 (HBD-2). In addition, The PyMol sofware was used to sterilize the protein samples to obtain the molecular docking optimization. This investigation found that, in the molecular docking simulation, the anthocyanin and ternatin showed producing the negative binding affinity to the ACE2 domain which interacted with RBD glycoprotein SARS-CoV-2. Anthocyanin and ternatin were then predicted to be able to influence any inhibitory activity of TNF-αR, MMP-9, and IL-6; increase IL-10; and increase HBD2 binding affinity values negatively. It can be predicted through molecular docking that anthocyanin and ternatin as the active compounds in C. ternatea contribute as a potential agent for COVID-19 oral manifestation therapy.