Oral Chinese Herbal Medicine on Immune Responses During Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

BackgroundCellular immune responses including lymphocyte functions and immune effector cells are critical for the control of coronavirus infection. Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) potentially has a therapeutic effect for treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Nevertheless, there are limited clinical practice suggestions on immunogenicity of the CHM against SARS-CoV-2. To assess the effect of oral CHM on immunogenicity and whether oral CHM improves the clinical parameters through the immunity profile during COVID-19, we performed the present study.MethodsFor this systematic review and meta-analysis, 11 databases were searched for relevant studies assessing oral CHM for COVID-19 on November 20, 2020 (updated March 9, 2021). Primary outcomes mainly included immunity profiles. Secondary outcomes included all-cause mortality; the remission time of fever, cough, chest tightness, and fatigue. The random effect was used to estimate the heterogeneity of the studies. Summary relative risks, weight mean difference and standardized mean difference were measured with 95% confidence intervals. Modified Jadad scale and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale were used to assess the risk of bias of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies, respectively. The certainty of evidence was evaluated using the GRADE approach.ResultsWe analyzed findings from 3,145 patients in 30 eligible studies. Compared with routine treatment, oral CHM, as an adjuvant medicine, improved lymphocyte counts, CD4+, and CD4+/CD8+ ratio with low quality of evidence; improved CD3+ with moderate quality of evidence; and reduced TNF-α with low certainty of evidence. Besides, oral CHM, as an adjuvant medicine reduced the time to clinical symptoms remission with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, compared with routine treatment alone.ConclusionCHM may be recommended as an adjuvant immunotherapy for disease modification and symptom relief in COVID-19 treatment. However, large RCTs objectively assessing the efficacy of CHM on immune responses in COVID-19 are needed to confirm our findings.

Antibiotic-Induced Primary Biles Inhibit SARS-CoV-2 Endoribonuclease Nsp15 Activity in Mouse Gut

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A critical evaluation of risk to reward ratio of quercetin supplementation for COVID‐19 and associated comorbid conditions

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“…ACE2, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; AMPK, 5 0 AMP-activated protein kinase; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; ERK, extracellular-signal-regulated kinase; GK, glucose kinase; JNK1, c-Jun N-terminal kinase; MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinases; NO, nitric oxide; PDE4, phosphodiesterase 4; ROS, reactive oxygen species; SARS-Co-V, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus; SASP, senescence-associated secretory phenotype theory, named "WE Medicine," indicates the combination of the medical principles regulating Western and Eastern medicine and can help to explain the beneficial effects of natural compounds. In this context, based on the conclusions of a very recent and distinguished article(Shi et al, 2022), it can be hypothesized that the synergistic effects ofnatural agents can mitigate and/or compensate the drawbacks due to their low absorption, distribution, and metabolism favoring their immune-pharmaceutical effects in modulating the immune effectors' functions during COVID-19. In conclusion, the present review is tempted to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the potential anti-COVID-19 effects of quercetin.…”

Epimedium for Osteoporosis Based on Western and Eastern Medicine: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…“WE” medicine is a concept proposed by pharmacology professor Yung-Chi Cheng at Yale University, which is a new trend of future medicine, mining ancient botanical drugs for cutting-edge therapies. “WE” medicine is a melding of Western medicine and Eastern medicine ( Shi et al, 2021 ). Western medicine is focused on microscopic and single-disease targets, and Eastern medicine can be exemplified by traditional Chinese therapies that are based on a holistic medical system for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases for thousands of years ( Cheng and Belli, 2020 ; Shi et al, 2021 ).…”

“…“WE” medicine is a melding of Western medicine and Eastern medicine ( Shi et al, 2021 ). Western medicine is focused on microscopic and single-disease targets, and Eastern medicine can be exemplified by traditional Chinese therapies that are based on a holistic medical system for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases for thousands of years ( Cheng and Belli, 2020 ; Shi et al, 2021 ). Professor Cheng believes that multiple targets should be focused on, and polychemical medicine instead of one chemical medicine with system biology approach should be considered in the new paradigm for future medicine.…”