Chinese herbal formulas including the lung-cleaning and toxicity-excluding (LCTE) soup have played an important role in treating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (caused by SARS-CoV-2) in China. Applying LCTE outside of China may prove challenging due to the unfamiliar rationale behind its application in terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine. To overcome this barrier, a biochemical understanding of the clinical effects of LCTE is needed. Here, we explore the chemical compounds present in the reported LCTE ingredients and the proteins targeted by these compounds via a network pharmacology analysis. Our results indicate that LCTE contains compounds with the potential to directly inhibit SARS-CoV-2 and inflammation, and that the compound targets proteins highly related to COVID-19’s main symptoms. We predict the general effect of LCTE is to affect the pathways involved in viral and other microbial infections, inflammation/cytokine response, and lung diseases. Our work provides a biochemical basis for using LCTE to treat COVID-19 and its main symptoms. Deng-hai Zhang et al. report a network pharmacology analysis of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) lung-cleaning and toxicity-excluding (LCTE) soup. By exploring the chemical compounds that make up LCTE and the likely pathways and proteins that they target, the authors show that LCTE may have the potential to directly inhibit the SARS-CoV-2 virus and relieve inflammatory symptoms.
【저자키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, viral infection, Computational biology and bioinformatics, Pharmacology, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, Inflammation, COVID-19 pandemic, network pharmacology, Symptoms, Clinical effect, Medicine, China, Protein, Lung diseases, pathway, target, ingredient, predict, TCM, Analysis, Inflammatory, biochemical, Compound, Chinese, treat, microbial infections, Affect, caused, involved, reported, inhibit, provide, in viral, overcome, these compound, Applying, biochemical basis, inhibit SARS-CoV-2, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Traditional, 【제목키워드】 Symptom, Medicine, network, biochemical, Chinese, treating COVID-19, Traditional,