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. 2020 Dec 22;18(12):881–889. doi: 10.1016/S1875-5364(20)60031-0

Recent advances of traditional Chinese medicine on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19

Yu-Jie DAI 1,Δ, Shi-Yao WAN 1,Δ, Shuai-Shuai GONG 1, Jin-Cheng LIU 1, Fang LI 1,*, Jun-Ping KOU 1,*
PMCID: PMC7832371  PMID: 33357718

Abstract

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a new highly infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus. Recently, the number of new cases infected pneumonia in the world continues to increase, which has aroused great concern from the international community. At present, there are no small-molecule specific anti-viral drugs for the treatment. The high mortality rate seriously threatens human health. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a unique health resource in China. The combination of TCM and Western medicine has played a positive and important role in combating COVID-19 in China. In this review, through literature mining and analysis, it was found that TCM has the potential to prevent and treat the COVID-19. Then, the network pharmacological studies demonstrated that TCM played roles of anti-virus, anti-inflammation and immunoregulation in the management of COVID-19 via multiple components acting on multiple targets and multiple pathways. Finally, clinical researches also confirmed the beneficial effects of TCM on the treatment of patients. This review may provide meaningful and useful information on further drug development of COVID-19 and other viral infectious diseases.

Key words: Novel coronavirus pneumonia, Prescription of traditional Chinese medicine, Single Chinese herb, Active ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine, Viral infection

Footnotes

These authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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