Practice and principle of traditional Chinese medicine for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played an important role in the prevention and treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in China. The integration of Chinese and Western medicine is an important feature of Chinese COVID-19 prevention and treatment. According to a series of evidence-based studies, TCM can reduce the infection rate of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in high-risk groups. For patients with mild and moderate forms of COVID-19, TCM can relieve the related signs and symptoms, shorten the period of nucleic-acid negative conversion, and reduce conversion rate to the severe form of the disease. For COVID-19 patients with severe and critical illnesses, TCM can improve inflammatory indicators and blood oxygen saturation, shorten the hospital stay, and reduce the mortality rate. During recovery, TCM can improve patients’ symptoms, promote organ function recovery, boost the quality of patients’ life, and reduce the nucleic-acid repositive conversion rate. A series of mechanism research studies revealed that capability of TCM to treat COVID-19 through antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects, immune regulation, and protection of organ function via a multicomponent, multitarget, and multipathway approach.

Keywords

traditional Chinese medicine / COVID-19 / SARS-CoV-2 / clinical evidence-based study / mechanism / integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Plan—Strategic International Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Key Project “International Cooperation Research on the Mechanism of the Treatment of COVID-19 by Hanshiyi Formula” (No. 2021YFE0201100), National Key Research and Development Plan—“Public Safety Risk Control and Emergency Technical Equipment” Key Project Special “Demonstration Research on New Drug Development of Sanhan Huashi Granules for the treatment of COVID-19” (No. 2022YFC0868300) .

Compliance with ethical guidelines

Conflicts of Interests Linhua Zhao, Chuanxi Tian, Yingying Yang, Huifang Guan, Yu Wei, Yuxin Zhang, Xiaomin Kang, Ling Zhou, Qingwei Li, Jing Ma, Li Wan, Yujiao Zheng, and Xiaolin Tong declare that they have no competing interests.

This manuscript is a review article and does not involve a research protocol that requires the approval of relevant institutional review board or ethics committee.

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