Research and Development of Natural Products – COVID-19 Special Topic
Novel coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute lung infection caused by enveloped RNA virus. Novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) mainly invades the respiratory system and is highly infectious. The patients initially show fever, dry cough, fatigue and other symptoms, and later progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (SARI), septic shock, and even multiple organ failure. As of now, there are still no specific therapeutic drugs for COVID-19. Clinical evidence has shown that traditional Chinese medicine has demonstrated certain advantages in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, with ideal coverage and overall effectiveness in the use of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China.
Network pharmacology, as an emerging discipline that reveals the regulatory network effects of traditional Chinese medicine on the body from a systemic perspective, has become an effective tool for systematically analyzing the multi-target and multi-path mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine formulas due to its holistic and systematic research methods and emphasis on drug interactions, which are consistent with the multi-target and multi-path characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine. Molecular docking is a method of drug design based on the characteristics of receptors and the interaction between receptors and drug molecules, and has become a powerful tool for modern research in traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, studying the material basis and mechanism of action of traditional Chinese medicine and its compound in preventing and treating COVID-19 through network pharmacology and molecular docking is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. This topic investigates the modern pharmacological mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine, compound prescriptions, and other treatments for COVID-19 through network pharmacology and molecular docking. Potential active active ingredients have been discovered and many possible targets have been predicted, which can provide scientific basis for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in traditional Chinese medicine and lay the foundation for further drug development.