Abstract
Background Herbal medicine is widely recommended to treat viral infectious diseases. Over 123,000,000 individuals have been infected with the coronavirus since a worldwide pandemic was declared in March 2020. We conducted this research to confirm the potential of herbal medicine as a treatment for coronavirus. Methods We infected the A549 cell line with betacoronavirus OC43 and then treated it with 100 μg/mL Hyunggaeyungyo-tang (HGYGT) or distilled water with a control of HGYGT. We measured the mRNA expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines and interferon stimulated genes (ISGs) to confirm the effectiveness of HGYGT upon coronavirus infection. Results We found that the effects of HYGYT decrease the expression level of pPKR, peIF2α, IFI6, IFI44, IFI44L, IFI27, IRF7, OASL, and ISG15 when administered to cells with coronavirus infection. The expressions of IL-1, TNF-α, COX-2, NF-κB, iNOS, and IKK mRNA were also significantly decreased in the HGYGT group than in the control group. Conclusion Through the reduction of the amount of coronavirus RNA, our research indicates that HGYGT has antiviral effects. The reduction of IKK and iNOS mRNA levels indicate that HGYGT reduces coronavirus RNA expression and may inhibit the replication of coronavirus by acting on NF-kB/Rel pathways to protect oxidative injury. In addition, decreases in mRNA expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines indicate that the HGYGT may relieve the symptoms of coronavirus infections.
Highlights
Herbal medicine is widely recommended to treat viral infectious diseases
We found that the effects of HYGYT decrease the expression level of pPKR, phosphorylated eIF2α (peIF2α), Interferon Alpha Inducible Protein 6 (IFI6), IFI44, IFI44L, IFI27, Interferon Regulatory Factor 7 (IRF7), Oligoadenylate Synthetase Like (OASL), and ISG15 when administered to cells with coronavirus infection. e expressions of IL-1, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), COX-2, NF-κB, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and IKK mRNA were significantly decreased in the HGYGT group than in the control group
The difference was not significant, the expression of Protein kinase RNA-activated (PKR) was higher in the cells treated with OC43 than cells treated with both OC43 and HGYGT
Summary
Herbal medicine is widely recommended to treat viral infectious diseases. Over 123,000,000 individuals have been infected with the coronavirus since a worldwide pandemic was declared in March 2020. We conducted this research to confirm the potential of herbal medicine as a treatment for coronavirus. We infected the A549 cell line with betacoronavirus OC43 and treated it with 100 μg/mL Hyunggaeyungyo-tang (HGYGT) or distilled water with a control of HGYGT. We measured the mRNA expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines and interferon stimulated genes (ISGs) to confirm the effectiveness of HGYGT upon coronavirus infection. We found that the effects of HYGYT decrease the expression level of pPKR, peIF2α, IFI6, IFI44, IFI44L, IFI27, IRF7, OASL, and ISG15 when administered to cells with coronavirus infection. E expressions of IL-1, TNF-α, COX-2, NF-κB, iNOS, and IKK mRNA were significantly decreased in the HGYGT group than in the control group. Rough the reduction of the amount of coronavirus RNA, our research indicates that HGYGT has antiviral effects Conclusion. rough the reduction of the amount of coronavirus RNA, our research indicates that HGYGT has antiviral effects
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