Therapeutic Potential of Pomegranate in SARS-CoV-2 and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS)

Abstract

COVID-19 is a viral disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has rapidly spread across the world causing a global health crisis. Due to the paucity of therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2, there is an urgent need for the identification of safe and effective treatments for this global pandemic. Thus, existing anti-viral and immunosuppressive drugs, are being evaluated as potential candidates and also an extensive amount of research is being conducted to develop novel therapeutic agents against COVID-19. Since ancient times natural products have been used as a treatment for a variety of diseases and to aid in the synthetic drug development process. The phytochemical constituents of Pomegranate have been extensively investigated in the past decade for their anti-tumor activity. The purpose of this review is to elaborate on how the major phytochemicals of pomegranate such as delphinidin, cyanidin, ellagitannin, and punicalagin could be utilized as pharmacological agents to suppress SARS-CoV-2 cell entry, replication, and immunological sequences that give rise to ARDS, based on current knowledge of interactome between host cells and SARS-CoV-2. The SARS-CoV-2 uses various biological mechanisms to modulate immune reactions, uncontrolled gene expression, and cell invasion to improve their survival inside the human host cells similar to those observed in certain tumors. Existing evidence suggests that certain tumors and SARS-CoV-2 use similar biological pathways for human cell invasion. Therefore, this review utilizes the findings of existing tumor-related research which describe how pomegranate extract interacts with various biological pathways associated with tumor suppression as indirect evidence for its ability to act as a potential therapeutic agent against SARS-CoV-2.