An overview on flavonoids as potential antiviral strategies against coronavirus infections

Abstract

Coronaviruses are zoonotic viruses and can infect people, often causing respiratory and gastrointestinal complaints. Three coronavirus types namely, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), middle-east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) cause pneumonia in human resulting in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). SARS-CoV-2, first appeared in Wuhan, China, in 2019, has rapidly spread to the whole world in a short time due to the speed of transmission rate. Since there is no specific drug for disease prevention and treatment, drug and vaccine development studies are proceeding rapidly. In drug development studies, natural resources draw attention due to their antiviral activity and fewer side effects. Flavonoids, a secondary metabolite group found in higher plants, have a variety of pharmacological activities, including antiviral activity. In this review, flavonoid-type compounds and plant extracts containing these constituents were summarized in terms of their antiviral activity potential against coronavirus-induced infections. Herein, we can suggest that flavonoids shown to possess antiviral effect against SARS and MERS may be used as potential test materials for the studies of novel drug search for ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.