Natural Products and Bioprospecting    2022, Vol. 12 Issue (1) : 1-10     DOI: 10.1007/s13659-022-00325-4
ORIGINAL ARTICLES |
Citrus fruits are rich in flavonoids for immunoregulation and potential targeting ACE2
Wenting Liu1, Weikang Zheng1, Liping Cheng1, Ming Li1, Jie Huang2, Shuzheng Bao3, Qiang Xu1, Zhaocheng Ma1
1 College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China;
2 Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific, Bangkok 10903, Thailand;
3 China Association of Agricultural Science Societies, Beijing 100125, China
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Abstract  The most recent outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus, named as COVID-19, caused pneumonia epidemic in Wuhan with 2121 deaths cases as of February 20th 2020. Identification of effective antiviral agents to combat the novel coronavirus is urgently needed. Citrus fruit peel or wild citrus are rich in flavonoids, and clinically documented for roles in relief of cough and promotion of digestive health. Therefore, citrus fruits are assumed to possess antivirus activities or enhance the host immunity. A previous study found that hesperetin could act as a high potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV 3CLpro. We determined six flavonoid compounds' content in three citrus species by using LC-MS technique. The content of naringin and naringenin was at higher levels in pummelo. Hesperetin and hesperidin were highly accumulated in mandarin and sweet orange. The subsequent in vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that naringin could inhibit the expression of the proinflammatory cytokines (COX-2, iNOS, IL-1β and IL-6) induced by LPS in Raw macrophage cell line, and may restrain cytokine through inhibiting HMGB1 expression in a mouse model. The results revealed that naringin may have a potential application for preventing cytokine storm. We simulated molecular docking to predict the binding affinity of those flavonoids to bind Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE 2), which is a receptor of the coronavirus. Consideration of the potential anti-coronavirus and anti-inflammatory activity of flavonoids, the citrus fruit or its derived phytochemicals are promising in the use of prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Keywords Citrus flavonoids      Naringin      Immunoregulation      ACE2      SARS-CoV-2     
Fund:The study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (2018YFD1000200), Innovation Team and Talents Cultivation Program of National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ZYYCXTD-D-202005), the Ability Establishment of Sustainable Use for Valuable Chinese Medicine Resources (2060302).
Corresponding Authors: Zhaocheng Ma     E-mail: mzhaocheng@mail.hzau.edu.cn
Issue Date: 12 March 2022
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Wenting Liu
Weikang Zheng
Liping Cheng
Ming Li
Jie Huang
Shuzheng Bao
Qiang Xu
Zhaocheng Ma
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Wenting Liu,Weikang Zheng,Liping Cheng, et al. Citrus fruits are rich in flavonoids for immunoregulation and potential targeting ACE2[J]. Natural Products and Bioprospecting, 2022, 12(1): 1-10.
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http://npb.kib.ac.cn/EN/10.1007/s13659-022-00325-4     OR     http://npb.kib.ac.cn/EN/Y2022/V12/I1/1
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