Bioactive Phytochemicals for Human Monkeypox Outbreak

Abstract

Monkeypox is a viral disease caused by the monkeypox virus that occurs primarily in central and western Africa. Nonetheless, it has recently spread internationally, garnering the attention of the scientific community to its own. For many years, medicinal plants and natural substances have been utilised to treat smallpox and chicken pox. They may also have anti-monkeypox viral properties. Therefore, we attempted to group all of the related information so that researchers could quickly access it and conduct studies to identify therapeutic approaches for the outbreak. This review article discusses the present global state of the monkeypox virus, including epidemiology, transmission, clinical manifestations, and prophylaxis, as well as phytochemicals that have been studied computationally as possibly active ingredients against the virus. Studies showed that around 56 plant compounds were evaluated for antimonkeypox capability with top four candidates having higher binding affinity. Curcumin had the highest binding affinity, measuring -37.43 kcal/mol, followed by gedunin (-34.89 kcal/mol), piperine (-34.58 kcal/mol), and coumadin (-34.14 kcal/mol). Additionally, this study highlighted potential therapeutic targets for the monkeypox virus such as DdRp and AF2R profilin like protein. In its entirety, this article may help scientists find and analyse bioactive phytochemicals as well as drug targets for monkeypox virus pharmacotherapy.