Efficacy and safety of yinqiao powder combined with western medicine in the treatment of pneumonia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This review aimed at systematically evaluating the efficacy and safety of Yinqiao powder combined with western medicine in the treatment of pneumonia. METHODS: A systematic search for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) focusing on pneumonia treatment using a combination of Yinqiao powder and western medicine was performed in PubMed, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, Weipu (VIP) and CBM. The retrieval time limit was from the establishment of the database to June 2020. Two researchers independently screened the literature, extracted the data and evaluated the bias risk of the included studies. A meta-analysis was performed using RevMan5.3 software. Quality of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. RESULT: Fifteen RCTs involving 1705 patients were included in the analysis. The meta-analysis results revealed the total effective rate of the treatment group [RR = 1.21, 95% CI (1.15, 1.27), P < 0.00001], bacterial clearance rate [RR = 1.13, 95% CI (1.05, 1.22), P = 0.001], adverse reactions [RR = 0.54, 95% CI (0.38, 0.76), P = 0.0005]. There were statistically significant differences in the cooling time, T cell number, procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) value decline rate (P < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the decline rate of neutrophils and leukocytes (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The current evidence indicated that the Yinqiao powder combined with western medicine can improve total efficiency in the treatment of pneumonia patients. The combination therapy performed better when compared to western medicine alone in the cooling time, bacterial clearance rate, T cell count, decline rates of CRP and PCT as well as in the incidences of adverse reactions. However, there was no significant difference in the decline rates of neutrophils and leucocytes between the two groups. The funnel plot, Egger's test and Begg's test indicated publication bias, which may be associated with unpublished negative study results. Due to the limitation of the quality and quantity of the included studies, more high-quality studies should be performed to verify our conclusions.

Exploring the treatment of COVID-19 with Yinqiao powder based on network pharmacology.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In China, Yinqiao powder is widely used to prevent and treat COVID-19 patients with Weifen syndrome. In this study, the screening and verification of active ingredients, target selection and DisGeNET scoring, drug-ingredient-gene network construction, protein-protein interaction network construction, molecular docking and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis, gene ontology (GO) functional analysis, gene tissue analysis, and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were used to explore the active ingredients, targets, and potential mechanisms of Yinqiao powder in the treatment of COVID-19. We also predicted the therapeutic effect of Yinqiao powder using TCM anti-COVID-19 (TCMATCOV). Yinqiao powder has a certain therapeutic effect on COVID-19, with an intervention score of 20.16. Hesperetin, eriodictyol, luteolin, quercetin, and naringenin were the potentially effective active ingredients against COVID-19. The hub-proteins were interleukin-6 (IL-6), mitogen-activated protein kinase 3 (MAPK3), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and tumor protein P53 (TP53). The potential mechanisms of Yinqiao powder in the treatment of COVID-19 are the TNF signaling pathway, T-cell receptor signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway. This study provides a new perspective for discovering potential drugs and mechanisms of COVID-19.