Therapeutic Effect of Gegentang Granules on Mouse Model with hCoV-229E Pneumonia and Hanshi Yidu Xifei Syndrome

ABSTRACT

Objective：To determine the therapeutic effect of Gegentang granules on a disease-syndrome mouse model combining human coronavirus 229E（hCoV-229E）pneumonia with Hanshi Yidu Xifei syndrome in vivo. Method： Mice were randomly divided into normal group，infection group，cold-dampness group，model group，chloroquine phosphate group（0.18 g·kg-1），interferon-α2b（IFN-α2b）group（1.83×106 U·kg-1）， Gegentang granules high-dose and low-dose groups（6.6，3.3 g·kg-1）with 10 mice in each group. Cold-dampness environment and hCoV-229E infection were used for modeling，and the general status and lung index of mice in each group were observed. The viral load in lung tissue was detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction（Real-time PCR），the pathological changes in lung tissue were evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin（HE）staining，the levels of serum gastrointestinal hormones and inflammatory factors in lung tissue were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay（ELISA），and the percentage of peripheral blood lymphocytes was detected by flow cytometry. Result：Comparing with model group，Gegentang granules could significantly alleviate the physical signs of Hanshi Yidu Xifei syndrome，including listlessness，weakness of limbs，sticky stool，etc. Comparing with model group，Gegentang granules high-dose group significantly reduced lung index，histopathological score of interstitial lung and bronchus，and the level of serum motilin（P< 0.05，P<0.01），two doses of Gegentang granules could significantly increase the level of serum gastrin（P< 0.05，P<0.01），the percentage of CD4+ ，CD8+ T lymphocytes in peripheral blood（P<0.05，P<0.01），and the level of tumor necrosis factor-α（TNF-α）in lung tissue was significantly decreased（P<0.01），and the level of interleukin-6（IL-6）showed decreasing tendency. Conclusion： Gegentang granules has therapeutic effect on model mice. It can improve the appearance and behavior characterization，regulate the level of gastrointestinal hormones，decrease lung index and histopathological score，and possibly play an immunomodulatory role by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory cytokines in lung tissue and restoring the percentage of peripheral blood lymphocytes. © 2022, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.