Gancao for COVID-19

c19early.org

COVID-19 Treatment Clinical Evidence

COVID-19 involves the interplay of 400+ viral and host proteins and factors, providing many therapeutic targets. c19early analyzes 6,000+ studies for 210+ treatments—over 17 million hours of research. Only three high-profit early treatments are approved in the US. In reality, many treatments reduce risk, with 25 low-cost treatments approved across 163 countries.

Naso/oropharyngeal treatment Effective Treatment directly to the primary source of initial infection.
Healthy lifestyles Protective Exercise, sunlight, a healthy diet, and good sleep all reduce risk.
Immune support Effective Vitamins A, C, D, and zinc show reduced risk, as with other viruses.
Thermotherapy Effective Methods for increasing internal body temperature, enhancing immune system function.
Systemic agents Effective Many systemic agents reduce risk, and may be required when infection progresses.
High-profit systemic agents Conditional Effective, but with greater access and cost barriers.
Monoclonal antibodies Limited Utility Effective but rarely used—high cost, variant dependence, IV/SC admin.
Acetaminophen Harmful Increased risk of severe outcomes and mortality.
Remdesivir Harmful Increased mortality with longer followup. Increased kidney and liver injury, cardiac disorders.

Gancao may be beneficial for COVID-19 according to the studies below. COVID-19 involves the interplay of 400+ viral and host proteins and factors providing many therapeutic targets. Scientists have proposed 11,000+ potential treatments. c19early.org analyzes 210+ treatments. We have not reviewed Gancao in detail.

Studies suggesting benefit with Gancao

Wang et al., Network pharmacology research of mechanism of Maxing Shigan Decoction in treating COVID‐19, Quantitative Biology, doi:10.15302/J-QB-022-0307

BackgroundThe COVID‐19 has a huge negative impact on people’s health. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has a good effect on viral pneumonia. It is of great practical significance to study its pharmacology.MethodsThe ingredients and targets of each herb in Maxing Shigan Decoction which obtained from Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database, and the related targets of COVID‐19 were screened by GeneCards database based on the network pharmacology. Venn was used to analyze the intersection target between active ingredients and diseases. Cytoscape software was used to construct an active ingredient‐disease target network. The Protein‐Protein Interaction network was constructed by STRING database and Cytohubba was used to screen out the key targets. Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway analysis were performed by David database.ResultsIn this study, a total of 134 active ingredients and 229 related targets, 198 targets of COVID‐19 and 48 common targets of drug‐disease were chosen. Enrichment items and pathways were obtained through GO and KEGG pathway analysis. The predicted active ingredients were quercetin, kaempferol, luteolin, naringenin, glycyrol, and the key targets involved IL6, MAPK3, MAPK8, CASP3, IL10, etc. The results showed that the active ingredients of Maxing Shigan Decoction acted on multiple targets which played roles in the treatment of COVID‐19 by regulating inflammation, immune system and other pathways.ConclusionsThe main contribution of this paper is to use data to mine the principles of the treatment of COVID‐19 from the pharmacology of these prescriptions, and the results can be provided theoretical reference for medical workers.

Yang et al., Active ingredient and mechanistic analysis of traditional Chinese medicine formulas for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19: Insights from bioinformatics and in vitro experiments, Medicine, doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000036238

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been proven to have a potential curative effect on COVID-19. This study preliminarily analyzed the existing TCM prescription’s key components and action mechanisms for preventing and treating COVID-19 using bioinformatic and experimental methods. Association and clustering analysis reveals that the “HQ + FF + BZ” drug combination had a strong correlation and confidence in 93 TCM prescriptions and may affect the progression of COVID-19 through inflammatory pathways such as the TNF signaling pathway. Further molecular docking revealed that quercetin has a higher affinity for IL6 and IL10 in the TNF signaling pathway associated with COVID-19. In vitro experiments demonstrated that quercetin could effectively reduce the levels of the inflammatory factor IL-6 and increase the anti-inflammatory factor IL-10, alleviating inflammation impact on cells. Our results provide a new understanding of the molecular mechanism of TCM prevention and treatment of COVID-19, which is helpful to the development of new diagnosis and treatment schemes for COVID-19.