An evidence of microalgal peptides to target spike protein of COVID-19: In silico approach

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected millions of lives and it is one of the deadliest viruses ever known and the effort to find a cure for COVID-19 has been very high. The purpose of the study was to investigate the anti-COVID effect from the peptides derived from microalgae. The peptides from microalgae exhibit antimicrobial, anti-allergic, anti-hypersensitive, anti-tumor and immune-modulatory properties. In the In silico study, 13 cyanobacterial specific peptides were retrieved based on the extensive literature survey and their structures were predicted using Discovery Studios Visualizer. The spike protein of the novel COVID19 was retrieved from PDB (6LU7) and further molecular docking was done with the peptides through CDOCKER. The five peptides were bound clearly to the spike protein (SP) and their inhibitory effect towards the SP was promising among 13 peptides were investigated. Interestingly, LDAVNR derived from S.maxima have excellent binding and interaction energy showed −113.456 kcal/mol and −71.0736 kcal/mol respectively to target SP of COVID. The further investigation required for the in vitro confirmation of anti-COVID from indigenous microalgal species for the possible remedy in the pandemic.