LAUSR

We read a recently published article by Umar et al. titled ‘In-silico analysis of the inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease by some active compounds from selected African plants’ with great interest. Through an in-silico study, the authors investigated the inhibitory effect of bioactive components of African plants on Mpro and predicted the pharmacological and toxicological profiles of these components, observing that these phytoconstituents possessed an antiviral potential against SARS-Cov-2, even greater than hydroxychloroquine. We thank Umar et al. for providing such valuable evidence. However, we would like to make some comments on the relevance of supporting such studies in lowand middle-income countries, and the impact they will have on their public health priorities in the near future. Given the catastrophe that the COVID-19 pandemic has generated for public health and health systems globally, there is an evident need to strengthen the funding and organization of biomedical research not only in highincome countries, but mainly in lowand middle-income countries, which have very high indicators of poverty, inequality, violence and burden of disease. In-silico studies constitute a fundamental and innovative tool in the modelling of protein and molecular structures for the design and discovery of new drugs. Recently, Murunga et al.