Article Essential Oils as Antiviral Agents. Potential of Essential Oils to Treat SARS−CoV−2 Infection: An In−Silico Investigation Joyce Kelly R. da Silva 1, Pablo Luis Baia Figueiredo 2, Kendall G. Byler 3 and William N. Setzer 4,5,* 1 Laboratório de Biotecnologia de Enzimas e Biotransformações, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA 66075−900, Brazil;
[email protected] 2 Departamento de Ciências Naturais, Centro de Ciências Sociais e Educação, Universidade do Estado do Pará, Belém, PA 66050−540, Brazil;
[email protected] 3 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA;
[email protected] 4 Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA;
[email protected] 5 Aromatic Plant Research Center, 230 N 1200 E, Suite 100, Lehi, UT 84043, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1−256−824−6519 Received: 23 April 2020; Accepted: 08 May 2020; Published: 12 May 2020 Abstract: Essential oils have shown promise as antiviral agents against several pathogenic viruses. In this work we hypothesized that essential oil components may interact with key protein targets of the 2019 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS−CoV−2). A molecular docking analysis was carried out using 171 essential oil components with SARS−CoV−2 main protease (SARS−CoV−2 Mpro), SARS−CoV−2 endoribonucleoase (SARS−CoV−2 Nsp15/NendoU), SARS−CoV−2 ADP−ribose−1″−phosphatase (SARS−CoV−2 ADRP), SARS−CoV−2 RNA−dependent RNA polymerase (SARS−CoV−2 RdRp), the binding domain of the SARS−CoV−2 spike protein (SARS−CoV−2 rS), and human angiotensin−converting enzyme (hACE2).