Khan Tariq, Khan Mubarak Ali, Karam Kashmala, Ullah Nazif, Mashwani Zia-Ur-Rehman, Nadhman Akhtar
Department of Biotechnology, University of Malakand, Chakdara, Pakistan.
Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Chemical and Life Sciences, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM), Mardan, Pakistan.
Front Plant Sci. 2021 Mar 12;12:610194. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.610194. eCollection 2021.
The current pandemic has caused chaos throughout the world. While there are few vaccines available now, there is the need for better treatment alternatives in line with preventive measures against COVID-19. Along with synthetic chemical compounds, phytochemicals cannot be overlooked as candidates for drugs against severe respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The important role of secondary metabolites or phytochemical compounds against coronaviruses has been confirmed by studies that reported the anti-coronavirus role of glycyrrhizin from the roots of . The study demonstrated that glycyrrhizin is a very promising phytochemical against SARS-CoV, which caused an outbreak in 2002-2003. Similarly, many phytochemical compounds (apigenin, betulonic acid, reserpine, emodin, etc.) were isolated from different plants such as , , and and were employed against SARS-CoV. However, owing to the geographical and seasonal variation, the quality of standard medicinal compounds isolated from plants varies. Furthermore, many of the important medicinal plants are either threatened or on the verge of endangerment because of overharvesting for medicinal purposes. Therefore, plant biotechnology provides a better alternative in the form of culture technology, including plant cell cultures, adventitious roots cultures, and organ and tissue cultures. cultures can serve as factories of secondary metabolites/phytochemicals that can be produced in bulk and of uniform quality in the fight against COVID-19, once tested. Similarly, environmental and molecular manipulation of these cultures could provide engineered drug candidates for testing against COVID-19. The culture-based phytochemicals have an additional benefit of consistency in terms of yield as well as quality. Nonetheless, as the traditional plant-based compounds might prove toxic in some cases, engineered production of promising phytochemicals can bypass this barrier. Our article focuses on reviewing the potential of the different cultures to produce medicinally important secondary metabolites that could ultimately be helpful in the fight against COVID-19.
当前的大流行已在全球造成混乱。虽然目前可用的疫苗很少，但需要有更好的治疗选择，以配合针对新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）的预防措施。除了合成化合物外，植物化学物质作为抗严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）的药物候选物也不容忽视。次生代谢产物或植物化学化合物对抗冠状病毒的重要作用已得到研究证实，这些研究报道了甘草根中甘草酸的抗冠状病毒作用。该研究表明，甘草酸是一种非常有前景的抗SARS-CoV植物化学物质，SARS-CoV曾在2002 - 2003年引发疫情。同样，许多植物化学化合物（芹菜素、桦木酸、利血平、大黄素等）从不同植物（如[具体植物1]、[具体植物2]和[具体植物3]）中分离出来，并用于对抗SARS-CoV。然而，由于地理和季节变化，从植物中分离出的标准药用化合物的质量各不相同。此外，许多重要的药用植物由于药用目的的过度采摘而受到威胁或濒临灭绝。因此，植物生物技术以细胞培养技术的形式提供了更好的选择，包括植物细胞培养、不定根培养以及器官和组织培养。细胞培养可以作为次生代谢产物/植物化学物质的工厂，一旦经过测试，这些产物可以大量生产且质量均匀，用于对抗COVID-19。同样，对这些细胞培养进行环境和分子操作可以提供工程化的药物候选物用于测试对抗COVID-19。基于细胞培养的植物化学物质在产量和质量方面具有一致性的额外优势。尽管如此，由于传统的植物基化合物在某些情况下可能有毒，有前景的植物化学物质的工程化生产可以绕过这一障碍。我们的文章重点回顾了不同细胞培养生产具有药用重要性的次生代谢产物的潜力，这些产物最终可能有助于对抗COVID-19。
