ArticleExperimental & molecular medicine2021
Platycodin D, a natural component of Platycodon grandiflorum, prevents both lysosome- and TMPRSS2-driven SARS-CoV-2 infection by hindering membrane fusion.
Article in Experimental & molecular medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 82 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chinese herbal medicine: Fighting SARS-CoV-2 infection on all fronts.Journal of ethnopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Traditional Chinese Medicine JingYinGuBiao Formula Therapy Improves the Negative Conversion Rate of SARS-CoV2 in Patients with Mild COVID-19.International journal of biological sciences · 2022Trial
- Preparation of Platycodin D Microspheres and Their Protective Effects on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Platycodin D sensitizes head and neck squamous cell carcinoma to cisplatin by inducing autophagy arrest.Oncology reports · 2026Article
- The Emerging Promise of Pentacyclic Triterpenoid Derivatives as Novel Antiviral Agents Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Research progress on the bioactivity of platycodin D from Platycodon grandifloras.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2025Review
- Exploring anti-SARS-CoV-2 natural products: dual-viral target inhibition by delphinidin and the anti-coronaviral efficacy of deapio platycodin D.Natural products and bioprospecting · 2025Article
- A Direct Relationship Between 'Blood Stasis' and Fibrinaloid Microclots in Chronic, Inflammatory, and Vascular Diseases, and Some Traditional Natural Products Approaches to Treatment.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Antiviral and Immune Enhancement Effect ofMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Ethnobotanical survey of herbal medicines for anti-COVID-19 used by traditional Chinese medicine pharmacies in Taiwan.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Chinese Medicine for Treatment of COVID-19: A Review of Potential Pharmacological Components and Mechanisms.Chinese journal of integrative medicine · 2025Review
- Genome-Wide Identification of the CYP716 Gene Family inPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Cholesterol and COVID-19-therapeutic opportunities at the host/virus interface during cell entry.Life science alliance · 2024Review
- Unveiling the anticancer potential of platycodin D.EXCLI journal · 2024Article
- Microfluidic Diffusion Sizing Applied to the Study of Natural Products and Extracts That Modulate the SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD/ACE2 Interaction.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Recuperative herbal formula Jing Si maintains vasculature permeability balance, regulates inflammation and assuages concomitants of "Long-Covid".Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2023Article
- Physiological and sucrose metabolic responses to waterlogging stress in balloon flower (Physiology and molecular biology of plants : an international journal of functional plant biology · 2023Article
- Discovery of 2-aminoquinolone acid derivatives as potent inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2.Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters · 2023Article
- The pharmacology and mechanisms of platycodin D, an active triterpenoid saponin fromFrontiers in pharmacology · 2023Review
- Nutrients, herbal bioactive derivatives and commensal microbiota as tools to lower the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
An ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is now the greatest threat to global public health. Herbal medicines and their derived natural products have drawn much attention in the treatment of COVID-19, but the detailed mechanisms by which natural products inhibit SARS-CoV-2 have not been elucidated. Here, we show that platycodin D (PD), a triterpenoid saponin abundant in Platycodon grandiflorum (PG), a dietary and medicinal herb commonly used in East Asia, effectively blocks the two main SARS-CoV-2 infection routes via lysosome- and transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2)-driven entry. Mechanistically, PD prevents host entry of SARS-CoV-2 by redistributing membrane cholesterol to prevent membrane fusion, which can be reinstated by treatment with a PD-encapsulating agent. Furthermore, the inhibitory effects of PD are recapitulated by the pharmacological inhibition or gene silencing of NPC1, which is mutated in patients with Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) displaying disrupted membrane cholesterol distribution. Finally, readily available local foods or herbal medicines containing PG root show similar inhibitory effects against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our study proposes that PD is a potent natural product for preventing or treating COVID-19 and that briefly disrupting the distribution of membrane cholesterol is a potential novel therapeutic strategy for SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.