Computational Insights into Kaempferol and Luteolin: Potential Mitigators of the Omicron B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2 Variant

Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been circulating in the local and global population. Among the SARS-CoV-2 variants, the Omicron strain tends to be detected in the recent genomic surveillance studies. Despite being a manageable disease, recovered patients may experience post-COVID-19 conditions such as cough (50.6%), fatigue (45.8%), and memory loss (37.4%). While developing an updated vaccine for COVID-19 is time-consuming, the in-silico discovery of phytoconstituents that bind to the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD), may provide insights on the potential of edible plants as complementary treatments. This study aimed to investigate and compare the ligand-protein interactions of phytoconstituents and COVID-19 treatment drug, remdesivir, to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The molecular docking results indicated that kaempferol and luteolin could potentially mitigate COVID-19, as they exhibited higher RBD-binding affinities than remdesivir.