Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Sep 7:8:732256.
doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.732256. eCollection 2021.

Microbial Metabolites: The Emerging Hotspot of Antiviral Compounds as Potential Candidates to Avert Viral Pandemic Alike COVID-19

Topu Raihan  1 , Muhammad Fazle Rabbee  2 , Puja Roy  1 , Swapnila Choudhury  3 , Kwang-Hyun Baek  2 , Abul Kalam Azad  1
Affiliations
Review

Microbial Metabolites: The Emerging Hotspot of Antiviral Compounds as Potential Candidates to Avert Viral Pandemic Alike COVID-19

Topu Raihan et al. Front Mol Biosci. .

Abstract

The present global COVID-19 pandemic caused by the noble pleomorphic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has created a vulnerable situation in the global healthcare and economy. In this pandemic situation, researchers all around the world are trying their level best to find suitable therapeutics from various sources to combat against the SARS-CoV-2. To date, numerous bioactive compounds from different sources have been tested to control many viral diseases. However, microbial metabolites are advantageous for drug development over metabolites from other sources. We herein retrieved and reviewed literatures from PubMed, Scopus and Google relevant to antiviral microbial metabolites by searching with the keywords "antiviral microbial metabolites," "microbial metabolite against virus," "microorganism with antiviral activity," "antiviral medicine from microbial metabolite," "antiviral bacterial metabolites," "antiviral fungal metabolites," "antiviral metabolites from microscopic algae' and so on. For the same purpose, the keywords "microbial metabolites against COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2" and "plant metabolites against COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2" were used. Only the full text literatures available in English and pertinent to the topic have been included and those which are not available as full text in English and pertinent to antiviral or anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity were excluded. In this review, we have accumulated microbial metabolites that can be used as antiviral agents against a broad range of viruses including SARS-CoV-2. Based on this concept, we have included 330 antiviral microbial metabolites so far available to date in the data bases and were previously isolated from fungi, bacteria and microalgae. The microbial source, chemical nature, targeted viruses, mechanism of actions and IC50/EC50 values of these metabolites are discussed although mechanisms of actions of many of them are not yet elucidated. Among these antiviral microbial metabolites, some compounds might be very potential against many other viruses including coronaviruses. However, these potential microbial metabolites need further research to be developed as effective antiviral drugs. This paper may provide the scientific community with the possible secret of microbial metabolites that could be an effective source of novel antiviral drugs to fight against many viruses including SARS-CoV-2 as well as the future viral pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; antiviral; microbial metabolites; pandemic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Viral outbreaks in the last 2 decades.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Viral lifecycle (A) and the proposed mode of actions of some of the antiviral microbial secondary metabolites (MSM) (B) listed in this review. The numbers in (A) denote the steps usually targeted by MSM. In (B), some of the antiviral MSM inhibiting targeted stages of viral lifecycle are listed. Cyan, red and green colors indicate the metabolites isolated from fungi, bacteria and microalgae, respectively. (C) Antiviral drug development strategy based on the viral and host factors.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Microbial source of antiviral compounds (A) and the source of microorganisms producing antiviral compounds (B).
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Representative antiviral compounds from polyketone (A), alkaloid (B), peptide (C), polyphenol (D), pyrone (E), quinone (F), sterol (G), and terpenoid (H) groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Agarwal G., Gabrani R. (2020). Antiviral Peptides: Identification and Validation. Int. J. Pept. Res. Ther. 18, 1–20. 10.1007/s10989-020-10072-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahmed E., Rateb M., Abou El-Kassem L., Hawas U. W. (2017). Anti-HCV Protease of Diketopiperazines Produced by the Red Sea Sponge-Associated Fungus Aspergillus versicolor . Appl. Biochem. Microbiol. 53 (1), 101–106. 10.1134/S0003683817010021 - DOI
    1. Akram M., Tahir I. M., Shah S. M. A., Mahmood Z., Altaf A., Ahmad K., et al. (2018). Antiviral Potential of Medicinal Plants against HIV, HSV, Influenza, Hepatitis, and Coxsackievirus: a Systematic Review. Phytother. Res. 32 (5), 811–822. 10.1002/ptr.6024 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anderson K. P., Fox M. C., Brown-Driver V., Martin M. J., Azad R. F. (1996). Inhibition of Human Cytomegalovirus Immediate-Early Gene Expression by an Antisense Oligonucleotide Complementary to Immediate-Early RNA. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 40 (9), 2004–2011. 10.1128/AAC.40.9.2004 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arena A., Gugliandolo C., Stassi G., Pavone B., Iannello D., Bisignano G., et al. (2009). An Exopolysaccharide Produced by Geobacillus Thermodenitrificans Strain B3-72: Antiviral Activity on Immunocompetent Cells. Immunol. Lett. 123 (2), 132–137. 10.1016/j.imlet.2009.03.001 - DOI - PubMed