Department of Biology, University of Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy.
Laboratory of Virology, Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Molecules. 2022 Jun 12;27(12):3786. doi: 10.3390/molecules27123786.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the relevance of proper disinfection procedures and renewed interest in developing novel disinfectant materials as a preventive strategy to limit SARS-CoV-2 contamination. Given its widely known antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties, essential oil, also named Tea tree oil (TTO), is recognized as a potential effective and safe natural disinfectant agent. In particular, the proposed antiviral activity of TTO involves the inhibition of viral entry and fusion, interfering with the structural dynamics of the membrane and with the protein envelope components. In this study, for the first time, we demonstrated the virucidal effects of TTO against the feline coronavirus (FCoVII) and the human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), both used as surrogate models for SARS-CoV-2. Then, to atomistically uncover the possible effects exerted by TTO compounds on the outer surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virion, we performed Gaussian accelerated Molecular Dynamics simulations of a SARS-CoV-2 envelope portion, including a complete model of the Spike glycoprotein in the absence or presence of the three main TTO compounds (terpinen-4-ol, γ-terpinene, and 1,8-cineole). The obtained results allowed us to hypothesize the mechanism of action of TTO and its possible use as an anti-coronavirus disinfectant agent.
新冠疫情凸显了正确的消毒程序的重要性,也重新激发了人们对开发新型消毒剂材料的兴趣,将其作为限制 SARS-CoV-2 污染的预防策略。鉴于其众所周知的抗菌、抗真菌和抗病毒特性,精油,也称为茶树油(TTO),被认为是一种潜在的有效和安全的天然消毒剂。特别是,TTO 被提议的抗病毒活性涉及抑制病毒进入和融合,干扰膜的结构动力学以及包膜蛋白成分。在这项研究中,我们首次证明了 TTO 对猫冠状病毒(FCoVII)和人冠状病毒 OC43(HCoV-OC43)的病毒杀灭作用,这两种病毒都被用作 SARS-CoV-2 的替代模型。然后,为了从原子水平揭示 TTO 化合物对 SARS-CoV-2 病毒粒子外表面可能产生的影响,我们对 SARS-CoV-2 包膜部分进行了高斯加速分子动力学模拟,包括 Spike 糖蛋白的完整模型,无论是在不存在还是存在三种主要 TTO 化合物(松油烯-4-醇、γ-松油烯和 1,8-桉树脑)的情况下。所得结果使我们能够假设 TTO 的作用机制及其作为抗冠状病毒消毒剂的可能用途。