Research progress on mechanism and clinic application of traditional Chinese medicine against coronavirus

ABSTRACT

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are the largest positive-strand RNA viruses discovered, with high variability and high infectivity. There are seven kinds of CoVs that can infect humans so far. Among them, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2003, middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019 have caused global outbreaks, posing a serious threat to global public health security. Research on CoVs infection has never stopped, and the current treatment methods mainly focus on improving symptoms. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history and rich experience in preventing and treating various diseases. In terms of anti-CoVs, TCM has attracted much attention because of its multi-CoVs and multi-targets, significant antiviral effect and few side effect. TCM extracts or their compounds can exert anti-CoVs effects by directly or indirectly inhibiting the invasion, replication, assembly of CoVs, regulating immunity and inhibiting inflammation. This article systematically reviews the mechanism and clinical application of TCM in anti-CoVs and alleviating virus-induced symptoms, in order to provide theoretical reference for the research and development of anti-coronavirus drugs. Copyright © 2023 Editorial Office of Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs. All rights reserved.