Abstract
The outbreak of new infectious pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 has posed a significant threat to public health, but specific medicines and vaccines are still being developed. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has thousands of years of experience in facing the epidemic disease, such as influenza and viral pneumonia. In this study, we revealed the efficacy and pharmacological mechanism of Ma Xing Shi Gan (MXSG) Decoction against COVID-19. First, we used liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) to analyze the chemical components in MXSG and identified a total of 97 components from MXSG. Then, the intervention pathway of MXSG based on these components was analyzed with network pharmacology, and it was found that the pathways related to the virus infection process were enriched in some of MXSG component targets. Simultaneously, through literature research, it was preliminarily determined that MXSG, which is an essential prescription for treating COVID-19, shared the feature of antiviral, improving clinical symptoms, regulating immune inflammation, and inhibiting lung injury. The regulatory mechanisms associated with its treatment of COVID-19 were proposed. That MXSG might directly inhibit the adsorption and replication of SARS-CoV-2 at the viral entry step. Besides, MXSG might play a critical role in inflammation and immune regulatory, that is, to prevent cytokine storm and relieve lung injury through toll-like receptors signaling pathway. Next, in this study, the regulatory effect of MXSG on inflammatory lung injury was validated through transcriptome results. In summary, MXSG is a relatively active and safe treatment for influenza and viral pneumonia, and its therapeutic effect may be attributed to its antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects.
Highlights
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic is a global public health crisis, with considerable mortality and morbidity exerting pressure on health care and the economy
Patients with COVID-19 exhibit pathogenesis; clinical manifestations are similar to the symptoms of SARS-CoV and influenza A virus hemagglutinin (H1N1) infections
We summarized the action of Ma Xing Shi Gan (MXSG) or its active components on influenza and coronavirus to validate our hypothesis (Table 2)
Summary
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic is a global public health crisis, with considerable mortality and morbidity exerting pressure on health care and the economy. Like SARS-CoV, the spine (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 enters human alveolar epithelial cells by binding the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor (Zhou et al, 2020). The human immune response may be characterized by the antiviral response to type I interferon and the CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell response, leading to viral clearance. Patients with COVID-19 exhibit pathogenesis; clinical manifestations are similar to the symptoms of SARS-CoV and H1N1 infections. The pathogenesis of COVID-19 is poorly understood, the similar mechanisms of SARS-CoV and H1N1 can give us a great deal of information on the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection to promote our recognition (Li et al, 2020c)
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