Review on the potential action mechanisms of Chinese medicines in treating Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Abstract

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared as a global pandemic, but specific medicines and vaccines are still being developed. In China, interventional therapies with traditional Chinese medicine for COVID-19 have achieved significant clinical efficacies, but the underlying pharmacological mechanisms are still unclear. This article reviewed the etiology of COVID-19 and clinical efficacy. Both network pharmacological study and literature search were used to demonstrate the possible action mechanisms of Chinese medicines in treating COVID-19. We found that Chinese medicines played the role of antivirus, anti-inflammation and immunoregulation, and target organs protection in the management of COVID-19 by multiple components acting on multiple targets at multiple pathways. AEC2 and 3CL protein could be the direct targets for inhibiting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Quercetin, kaempferol, luteolin, isorhamnetin, baicalein, naringenin, and wogonin could be the main active ingredients of Chinese medicines for the management of COVID-19 by targeting on AEC2 and 3CL protein and inhibiting inflammatory mediators, regulating immunity, and eliminating free radicals through COX-2, CASP3, IL-6, MAPK1, MAPK14, MAPK8, and REAL in the signaling pathways of IL-17, arachidonic acid, HIF-1, NF-κB, Ras, and TNF. This study may provide meaningful and useful information on further research to investigate the action mechanisms of Chinese medicines against SARS-CoV-2 and also provide a basis for sharing the "China scheme" for COVID-19 treatment.

The Influence of Adding Traditional Chinese Medicine on COVID-19 Patients’ Liver Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…Most of the related studies discuss the e cacy of TCM, while the studies about adverse reactions are few. During the treatment of COVID-19, the main adverse reactions include digestive symptoms, liver and kidney dysfunction, dyslipidemia and cardiotoxicity [23]. According to the available data, 14%~53% of COVID-19 patients have abnormal levels of ALT and AST.…”

Antiviral mechanisms of candidate chemical medicines and traditional Chinese medicines for SARS-CoV-2 infection

“…Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) are widely used in China and some Chinese communities outside China, with characteristics of low cost, good curative effect, short duration of treatment, and multiple targets. Numerous facts prove that it is feasible to treat human and animal diseases with TCM, which can effectively relieve symptoms, reduce the development from mild to moderate or severe, improve the cure rate, reduce mortality rate, and promote the recovery of patient by means of "multi-component, multi-target, multi-pathway" (Cantwell, 2010;Huang et al, 2020;Luo et al, 2020;Tong et al, 2020;Yuan et al, 2016).…”

The Important Herbal Pair for the Treatment of COVID-19 and Its Possible Mechanisms

“…From the KEGG enrichment, the results indicates that the key signaling pathways of AE aganist COVID-19 were TNF, TLR, HIF-1 and NLRs signaling pathways that closely related to in ammation, immunity and oxidation process. Many studies of TCM against COVID-19 also reported that the anti-COVID-19 mechanism of TCM prescriptions including AE might involve the in ammation and immunity pathways liking TLR, JAK-STAT, TNF, AGE-RAGE, T cell receptor, IL-17 and so on 38,39 .…”