Abstract
The current Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become a global challenge, and although vaccines have been developed, it is expected that mild to moderate patients will control their symptoms, especially in developing countries. Licorice, not only a food additive, but also a common traditional Chinese herbal medicine, which has several pharmacological effects, such as anti-inflammation, detoxification, antibacterial, antitussive, and immunomodulatory effects, especially in respiratory diseases. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, glycyrrhizin, glycyrrhizin diamine and glycyrrhizin extract have been widely studied and used in COVID-19 clinical trials. Therefore, it is a very interesting topic to explore the material basis, pharmacological characteristics and molecular mechanism of licorice in adjuvant treatment of COVID-19. In this paper, the material basis of licorice for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 is deeply analyzed, and there are significant differences among different components in different pharmacological mechanisms. Glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetinic acid inhibit the synthesis of inflammatory factors and inflammatory mediators by blocking the binding of ACE 2 to virus spike protein, and exert antiviral and antibacterial effects. Immune cells are stimulated by multiple targets and pathways to interfere with the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Liquiritin can prevent and cure COVID-19 by simulating type I interferon. It is suggested that licorice can exert its therapeutic advantage through multi-components and multi-targets. To sum up, licorice has the potential to adjuvant prevent and treat COVID-19. It not only plays a significant role in anti-inflammation and anti-ACE-2, but also significantly improves the clinical symptoms of fever, dry cough and shortness of breath, suggesting that licorice is expected to be a candidate drug for adjuvant treatment of patients with early / mild COVID-19.
Highlights
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 (December 12, 2019), there has been more than 240.34 million confirmed cases, and the epidemic situation is still grim all over the world
Results showed that licochalcone A could inhibit pro-caspase-1 splicing, block caspase p20-mediated shear maturation of pro-IL-1β, and inhibit the immuneinflammatory response mediated by NLRP3 inflammatory bodies (Shubin et al, 2018). These results provide a basis for licorice in treating COVID-19 and NLRP3 inflammatory body-related diseases (Qiao et al, 2020)
Licorice plays a synergistic role in regulating the symptoms of COVID-19 patients through multi-components and multi-targets, and participates in biological processes such as immunity, anti-inflammation and signal transduction, suppresses the production of cellular endotoxin, balances immunity, eliminates inflammation, avoids or alleviates inflammatory storms, and has a good clinical effect on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19
Summary
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 (December 12, 2019), there has been more than 240.34 million confirmed cases, and the epidemic situation is still grim all over the world. According to a team at Peking University, liquiritin can inhibit COVID-19 by simulating type I interferon (ZhuJie et al, 2020) It certainly has a reference point for exploring the mechanism and bioactive components of licorice in the treatment of COVID-19. In IV-III century B.C., the Greeks first used licorice as a medicine in Europe to treat asthma, lung disease, and cough. According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, licorice has a unique conditioning effect on respiratory diseases, viral cough, viral hepatitis, and other diseases. Licorice is widely used in beverages, beer, meat and other foods as sweeteners, antioxidants, antimicrobials, foaming agents and flavor enhancers It is a recognized food additive in the Europe, the United States and China (Montoro et al, 2011; Di Lorenzo et al, 2015; Li et al, 2016; Xu et al, 2016; Alam et al, 2017; Indhu and Shajahan, 2018).
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