u et al., 2020). PL-pro, another crucial non-structural protein, is a virally encoded cysteine protease which has a role in N-terminal processing of viral polyproteins causing release of Nsp1, Nsp2 and Nsp3 which are essential for viral replication to proceed in a correct manner (Chen et al., 2020; Harcourt et al., 2004). Recently, the st