KERRA, Mixed Medicinal Plant Extracts, Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 Targets Enzymes and Feline Coronavirus

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic affects all parameters, especially healthcare professionals, drugs and medical supplies. The KERRA is a mixed medicinal plant capsule that is used for the treatment of patients with high fever, with food and drug administration approved by FDA Thailand. Recently, KERRA showed induced quicker recovery for COVID-19 patients. Therefore, it is possible that some ingredients in KERRA could inhibit SARS-CoV-2. In this study, two important replication-related enzymes in SARS-CoV-2, a main protease and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), were used to study the effect of KERRA. The results showed that KERRA inhibited the SARS-CoV-2 main protease and SARS-CoV-2 RdRp with IC50 values of 49.91 ± 1.75 ng/mL and 36.23 ± 5.23 µg/mL, respectively. KERRA displayed no cytotoxic activity on macrophage cells at concentrations lower than 1 mg/mL and exhibited anti-inflammatory activity. Additionally, KERRA was used against a feline coronavirus (feline infectious peritonitis (FIP)) infection with an EC50 value of 134.3 μg/mL. This study supports the potential use of KERRA as a candidate drug for COVID-19.