Exploring the treatment of COVID‐19 with Yinqiao powder based on network pharmacology

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). In China, Yinqiao powder is widely used to prevent and treat COVID‐19 patients with Weifen syndrome. In this study, the screening and verification of active ingredients, target selection and DisGeNET scoring, drug–ingredient–gene network construction, protein–protein interaction network construction, molecular docking and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis, gene ontology (GO) functional analysis, gene tissue analysis, and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were used to explore the active ingredients, targets, and potential mechanisms of Yinqiao powder in the treatment of COVID‐19. We also predicted the therapeutic effect of Yinqiao powder using TCM anti‐COVID‐19 (TCMATCOV). Yinqiao powder has a certain therapeutic effect on COVID‐19, with an intervention score of 20.16. Hesperetin, eriodictyol, luteolin, quercetin, and naringenin were the potentially effective active ingredients against COVID‐19. The hub‐proteins were interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), mitogen‐activated protein kinase 3 (MAPK3), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and tumor protein P53 (TP53). The potential mechanisms of Yinqiao powder in the treatment of COVID‐19 are the TNF signaling pathway, T‐cell receptor signaling pathway, Toll‐like receptor signaling pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway. This study provides a new perspective for discovering potential drugs and mechanisms of COVID‐19.

Differential Co-Expression Network Analysis Reveals Key Hub-High Traffic Genes as Potential Therapeutic Targets for COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Furthermore, this TF is associated with some human inflammatory diseases such as RA ( 417 ). In agreement with us, this TF was identified as a hub gene in several network-based COVID-19 studies ( 347 , 418 – 421 ). Therefore, this TF may have an immunoregulatory role during SARS-CoV-2 infection and be a potential therapeutic target.…”

Traditional Chinese medicine in COVID-19

“…According to sequence alignment and homology modeling, the critical targets of spike, 3C-like protease (3CLpro), papain-like protease (PLpro), and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) protease share 76%, 96%, 83%, 96% sequence similarity between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, respectively 85 , 86 , 87 . We collected and summarized TCMs and their ingredients to reveal the specific mechanisms of TCM for the three phases of distinct disease stages of COVID-19 42 , 88 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 , 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 , 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 , 124 , 125 , 126 , 127 , 128 , 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 , 133 , 134 , 135 , 136 , 137 , 138 , 139 , 140 , 141 , 142 , 143 , 144 , 145 , 146 , 147 , …”

Herbal Medicine, Gut Microbiota, and COVID-19

“…It is important to understand which herbs and their active ingredients have potential inhibitory effects on ACE2. Here, we list the commonly used herbal prescriptions (Perez-Roses et al, 2015;Saranya et al, 2017;Chuan et al, 2020;Feng et al, 2020;Lin et al, 2020;Liu and Zhang, 2020;Ma J. et al, 2020;Ma Q. et al, 2020;Niu et al, 2020;Qu et al, 2020;Sen et al, 2020;Song et al, 2020;Sun K. et al, 2020;Tao et al, 2020;Wang S. et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020b;Ya et al, 2020;Yao et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2020b;Hong et al, 2021;Jia et al, 2021;Lin et al, 2021) in the "China Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment Program." Among them, some herbs with potential ACE2-blockers and their related active ingredients are sorted out in Figure 3.…”

“…It is important to understand which herbs and their active ingredients have potential inhibitory effects on ACE2. Here, we list the commonly used herbal prescriptions ( Perez-Roses et al, 2015 ; Saranya et al, 2017 ; Chuan et al, 2020 ; Feng et al, 2020 ; Huang L. et al, 2020 ; Kim and Kim, 2020 ; Kim M. et al, 2020 ; Lin et al, 2020 ; Liu and Zhang, 2020 ; Ma J. et al, 2020 ; Ma Q. et al, 2020 ; Niu et al, 2020 ; Qu et al, 2020 ; Sen et al, 2020 ; Song et al, 2020 ; Sun K. et al, 2020 ; Tao et al, 2020 ; Wang S. et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020b ; Ya et al, 2020 ; Yao et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2020b ; Hong et al, 2021 ; Jia et al, 2021 ; Li Y. et al, 2021 ; Lin et al, 2021 ) in the “China Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment Program.” Among them, some herbs with potential ACE2-blockers and their related active ingredients are sorted out in Figure 3 . Research results show that the herbs as mentioned above may maintain the balance of RAS-related pathways ( Saranya et al, 2017 ), inhibit the activation of the complement system ( Perez-Roses et al, 2015 ), blunt inflammation ( Kim M. et al, 2020 ; Kim and Kim, 2020 ), participate in immune regulation ( Qu et al, 2020 ), inhibit the activity of SARS-CoV-2 3C-like protease ( Chuan et al, 2020 ; Feng et al, 2020 ; Huang L. et al, 2020 ; Lin et al, 2020 ; Sen et al, 2020 ; Tao et al, 2020 ; Ya et al, 2020 ), and inhibit the binding process of ACE2 ( Hoffmann et al, 2020 ; Ma Q. et al, 2020 ; Niu et al, 2020 ; Song et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020b ).…”