Table 2.

Pharmacological effects of cepharanthine.

Property	Mechanism of Action	References
Antiviral effects	HIV-1: Reduces plasma membrane fluidity	[15]
	HBV, HZV, HTLV-1: Affects virus replication	[16,17,18]
	SARS-CoV-2: Blocks the binding of the virus to target cells, inhibits the purified recombinant SARS-CoV-2 decapping enzyme Nsp13, inhibits SARS-CoV-2 S protein/angiotensin converting enzyme2 (ACE2)-mediated membrane fusion by targeting host calcium ion channels, and upregulates intracellular cholesterol levels	[13,26,27]
Prevention of leukopenia	Stimulates the reticuloendothelial system, activates hematopoietic tissue, and promotes bone marrow proliferation	[30]
Antitumor effects	Enhances immunity, inhibits tumor cell proliferation, increases tumor cell sensitivity to radiotherapy, inhibits tumor cell infiltration and metastasis, and reverses multidrug resistance of tumor cells	[32,33,35,52]
Anti-inflammatory effects	Reduces neutrophil infiltration and decreases TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 levels	[41]
Immunomodulation	Prevents progressive thrombocytopenia and regulates several signaling pathways in abnormally activated T cells	[43,46]