ArticleAging2021
Chemical composition and pharmacological mechanism of ephedra-glycyrrhiza drug pair against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Article in Aging, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Traditional Chinese Medicine in COVID-19 Treatment: Integrating Ancient Wisdom with Modern Medicine.Current medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Mucosal implications of oral Jak3-targeted drugs in COVID patients.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Review
- Effectiveness of Yinhua Pinggan granules in community-acquired pneumonia: a randomized, double-blind clinical trial.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Mechanistic insights into traditional Chinese medicine for viral pneumonia treatment: signaling pathway perspectives.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- Association of serum interleukin-2 with severity and prognosis in hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia: a prospective cohort study.Internal and emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Xuanfei Baidu decoction in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Efficacy and potential mechanisms.Heliyon · 2023Review
- Andrographolide protects against atrial fibrillation by alleviating oxidative stress injury and promoting impaired mitochondrial bioenergetics.Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B · 2023Article
- Repurposing clinically available drugs and therapies for pathogenic targets to combat SARS-CoV-2.MedComm · 2023Review
- Deep learning-based network pharmacology for exploring the mechanism of licorice for the treatment of COVID-19.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Glycyrrhizin as a promising kryptonite against SARS-CoV-2: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical evidences.Journal of molecular structure · 2023Review
- Ephedrae Herba: A Review of Its Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, Clinical Application, and Alkaloid Toxicity.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Glycyrrhizin and boswellic acids, the golden nutraceuticals: multitargeting for treatment of mild-moderate COVID-19 and prevention of post-COVID cognitive impairment.Inflammopharmacology · 2022Review
- Potential Treatment of COVID-19 with Traditional Chinese Medicine: What Herbs Can Help Win the Battle with SARS-CoV-2?Engineering (Beijing, China) · 2022Review
- Exploring the role of Xingren on COVID-19 based on network pharmacology and molecular docking.Journal of food biochemistry · 2022Article
- Potential inhibitor for blocking binding between ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein with mutations.Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2022Article
- Efficacy and mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine for COVID-19: a systematic review.Chinese medicine · 2022Review
- Revisiting liquorice (Phytomedicine plus : international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology · 2022Review
- Network Pharmacology and Transcriptomics Reveal the Mechanism of GuaLouQuMaiWan in Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes and Its Active Small Molecular Compound.Journal of diabetes research · 2022Article
- Network Pharmacology and Bioinformatics Analyses Identify Intersection Genes of Vitamin D3 and COVID-19 as Potential Therapeutic Targets.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- Pyroptotic Patterns in Blood Leukocytes Predict Disease Severity and Outcome in COVID-19 Patients.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) had demonstrated effectiveness in the prevention and control of COVID-19. Statistics showed that Ephedra and Glycyrrhiza were frequently used in the treatment of COVID-19. We hypothesized that the Ephedra-Glycyrrhiza drug pair is a potential choice for the treatment of COVID-19. Here, 112 active compounds were identified from Ephedra-Glycyrrhiza via network pharmacology approach. Ephedra-Glycyrrhiza pair enrichment analysis demonstrated that these compounds might participate in the cAMP, PI3K-Akt, JAK-STAT and chemokine signaling pathways, which had a high correlation with respiratory, nervous, blood circulation and digestive system-related diseases. Pathway analysis between Ephedra-Glycyrrhiza and COVID-19 showed that the key targets were TNF-α, IL2, FOS, ALB, and PTGS2. They might control PI3K-Akt signaling pathway to exert immune regulation, organ protection and antiviral effects. Molecular docking results showed that the active compounds from the Ephedra-Glycyrrhiza pair bound well to COVID-19 related targets, including the main protease (Mpro, also called 3CLpro), the spike protein (S protein), and the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The Molecular dynamics simulation was analyzed for the stability and flexibility of the complex. In conclusion, our study elucidated the potential pharmacological mechanism of Ephedra-Glycyrrhiza in the treatment of COVID-19 through multiple targets and pathways.
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