Effect of Nigella sativa on Nsp16 and NSP10 complex of SARS-CoV-2

SARS-CoV-2 virus was discovered in 2019 causing COVID-19, a global pandemic, leading to millions of deaths. SARS CoV-2 can cause various symptoms, and some of the effects of COVID-19 are life-threatening and extremely dangerous. Even after the disease has passed, people can experience Long COVID, where symptoms can get worse even after the initial infection. Even though vaccines have been developed to stop SARS-CoV-2, they have drawbacks and side effects. Viral genome mutation including SARS-CoV-2, make the existing vaccines obsolete and creating a demand for new vaccines and therapies. SARS- CoV-2 has key structural proteins (like S-, M-, E-, N- proteins) along with multiple nonstructural proteins (NSPs). The complex of Nsp16 and 10 is crucial for the replication of SARS-CoV-2. NSP16-10 complex methylates SARS-CoV-2 RNA, which makes the viral RNA appear like host RNA and escape host immune system. Targeting the binding of Nsp16 and 10 might be a better strategy to treat the COVID19 which might significantly decrease the viral titer and replication. Traditional medicine provided multiple novel therapies for modern humankind including metformin, statins etc. and could serve as a workable solution for treating infectious diseases like COVID19. Traditional medicine plants are more abundant, easier to grow, and have less or no side effects. These plants could potentially help inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2, and one such plant that has great promise is Nigella sativa. Nigella sativa was shown to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and beneficial effects on lungs. PubChem was used to procure the 2D/3D structures of phytochemicals of Nigella sativa, and Open babble was used to convert the sdf file formats to pdb file formats wherever required. NSP16-10 complex 3D structure was downloaded from RCSB Protein Data Bank. CB-Dock2 was used to perform docking of phytochemicals with viral NSP16-10 complex and Chimera X was used to visualize the binding. Among 24 compounds evaluated, 5 compounds (NS1, NS2, NS3, NS4 and NS5) bonded very well with at least three strong hydrogen bonds and good VINA scores. However, compounds named NS6, NS7 and NS8 only showed hydrophobic interactions. NS compounds that bond well with the viral NSP16- 10 complex can be potential drug candidates and further studies are required to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of these compounds using cell culture and animal models. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.