Natural Product-Based Anti-Viral Agents Against RNA Viruses: An Important Strategy for Pandemic Preparedness

Anthropogenic factors and climate changes result in the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases. Viruses are one of the major causative agents of contagious diseases, and they have tremendous potential to cause pandemics and epidemics. The discovery and development of anti-viral drugs are crucial to combat viral diseases, and plant and microbial origin molecules are ideal candidates for novel anti-viral agent development. The abundant chemical diversity of natural products makes them unique resources of bioactive molecules. The unique characteristics of RNA viruses, such as error-prone replication and high host adaptability that help cause diseases in humans and animals, make them potential causative agents for future pandemics. Thus, channeling natural products for developing anti-viral agents against RNA viruses is an important strategy for pandemic preparedness. Natural product-based drug discovery has challenges. However, using modern scientific tools, an optimized natural product-based drug pipeline can overcome natural product-based drug discovery challenges to develop highly potent, greener, sustainable anti-virals. This article explores the anti-viral activities of natural products derived from microbes and plants.