Diagosis and treatment protocol for COVID‐19 patients
(Tentative 10th Version)
(2023, China)
Released by National Health Commission of People’s Republic of China & National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine on January 5, 2023.
11.8 | Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy
This disease belongs to plague in TCM, caused by epidemic pathogenic factors.
According to the different local climate characteristics and individual states of illness and physical conditions, the following treatment Protocol may vary. …
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/hcs2.36
Zhang Z. Diagnosis and treatment protocol for COVID‐19 patients (Tentative 10th Version). Health Care Sci. 2023;2:10–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/hcs2.36
Therapeutic drug combinations against COVID-19
obtained by employing a collaborative filtering method
(2023, China)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9958039/pdf/main.pdf
TCM can effectively treat COVID-19, decrease the conversion of mild cases to severe cases, shorten the virus clearance time, and improve the clinical prognosis of mild and common COVID-19 patients
In March 2020, the State Medical Products Administration announced that
Jinhua Qinggan Granules will be converted from prescription drugs to Class A
non-prescription drugs.
Jinhua Qinggan Granules can be used for fever, cough, and malaise caused by viral infection, in addition to being used for the routine treatment of novel coronavirus pneumonia.
The antipyretic and antiviral effects of Jinhua Qinggan Granules can effectively ameliorate the clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients.
Jinhua Qinggan Granules acted on PTGS2, TNF-α, NF-κB, IL-6, and CASP-8 targets and exerted anti-COVID-19 effects through Toll-like receptor signaling pathways.
The State Food and Drug Administration issued supplementary approval in May 2020, Jinhua Qinggan granule is suitable for the treatment of mild and common types of novel coronavirus pneumonia.
On March 31, 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) released the “World Health Organization Expert Evaluation Meeting on Traditional Chinese Medicine against COVID-19” on its official website, which fully affirmed the contribution of TCM in fighting the epidemic situation of COVID-19.
Previous studies have shown that a variety of western drugs may block neo-coronavirus infection, but thus far, there are still no specific efficacious drugs.
Jinhua Qinggan Granules, e.g., are extracted from Yinqiao Powder and Maxing Shigan decoction, and the substance is further refined by the subsequent removal and addition of some Chinese herbal medicines from the formula. This herbal product is well-known for dispelling wind, invigorating the lungs, clearing heat, and detoxification.
Cell culture experiments showed Omicron to be less fusogenic than Delta and than
an ancestral strain of SARS-CoV-Although the novel coronavirus continues to mutate,
the vaccine is still effective in preventing severe illness and death.
At the present stage, most infected people are asymptomatic and mild.
Jinhua Qinggan Granules is effective and more accurate at this stage.
In addition, on March 31, 2020, the State Medical Products Administration converted
Jinhua Qinggan Granules from a prescription drug to A Class A non-prescription drug,
which fully demonstrated its clinical applicability and practicability.
Current studies have fully verified the clinical effectiveness, antiviral activity, and anti-inflammatory effect of Jinhua Qinggan Granules.
In the COVID-19 Treatment Protocol (Trial Version 8) issued by the National Health and Wellness Commission, a variety of TCM prescriptions are recommended, among which the efficacious six formulas, (i) Jinhua Qinggan Granules, (ii) Lianhua Qingwen Capsules, (iii) Xuebijing Injection, (iv) Qingfei Paidu Decoction, (v) Huashi Baidu Formula, and (vi) Xuanfei Baidu Formula, have made great contributions to the global fight against epidemics.
Jinhua Qinggan is an effective traditional Chinese medicine developed in 2009 in the fight against influenza A (H1N1). It is an innovative Chinese medicine that combines past knowledge on optimal remedies for typhoid and febrile disease with the new knowledge of modern Chinese medicine and the use of modern pharmaceutical technology to determine a choice of remedies. It is mainly used for fever, mild or no chills, red throat, sore throat, stuffy nose, runny nose, thirst, cough, or cough with phlegm.
In a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial for the treatment of influenza with wind-heat offending lung syndrome, this formula decreased the time and rate of fever reduction, ameliorated the clinical symptoms of TCM (with fever, head, and body pain, red throat, and sore throat as the main symptoms), increased the rate of viral transitions, and was confirmed to be safe and effective under conventional-dose treatment.
From the perspective of TCM clinical manifestations, H1N1 influenza is mainly a “heat toxin”, while COVID-19 is mainly a “damp toxin” epidemic, and although the etiology of the two is different, fever is their common characteristic.
The study of the pharmacological effect of Jinhua Qinggan Granules revealed that it decreases the mortality rate, prolongs the survival time, and decreased the amount of lung tissue lesions in a mouse model of influenza virus pneumonia.
Among the constituent flavors of this formula, various herbal extracts and ingredients such as honeysuckle flower, weeping forsythia capsule, licorice, and skullcap have anti-influenza virus or respiratory syncytial virus effects.
As a Chinese medicine recommended in the treatment plan, the antipyretic and antiviral effects of Jinhua Qinggan Granules can effectively ameliorate the clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients.
Through a network pharmacology study, Peng et al. found that Jinhua Qinggan Granules acted on PTGS2, TNF-α, NF-κB, IL-6, and CASP-8 targets and exerted anti-COVID-19 effects through Toll-like receptor signaling pathways.
Because TCM emphasizes syndrome differentiation and treatment, it should be combined with the actual situation of patients in clinical practice.
