key: cord-340995-t1zu7uqa
authors: Jiang, Sida; Cui, Qiuji; Ni, Bingwei; Chen, Yingying; Tan, Ying; Chen, Weiping; Chen, Yu Zong
title: Databases for facilitating mechanistic investigations of traditional Chinese medicines against COVID-19
date: 2020-06-02
journal: Pharmacol Res
DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2020.104989
sha: 
doc_id: 340995
cord_uid: t1zu7uqa

nan

questions require a more comprehensive mechanistic understanding and clinical evaluation of these traditional medicines. As part of the efforts for probing these questions, the possible mechanisms of these traditional Chinese medicines have been studied based on the experimental and predicted targets of the chemical ingredients, which have been derived from the liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry [4] and obtained from literature surveys [5, 6] .

These studies have shown that the knowledge of the chemical ingredients of the traditional Chinese medicines are highly useful for COVID-19 investigations. In particular, the knowledge and clinical profiling of the activities of the chemical ingredients enables the multi-omics studies for finding the clinically-relevant targets [3] , and the molecular structures of the chemical ingredients are needed for molecular docking and target binding studies in target assessment [5] . Additionally, the knowledge of the chemical ingredients facilitates the molecular and disease network analysis with respect to the experimental and predicted targets for understanding the network pharmacology [4] , and the statistical frequency of appearance analysis of the literature-reported chemical ingredients and mechanisms for focusing on the high confidence mechanisms [6] .

The mechanisms of the traditional Chinese medicines are multifaceted in general and for the treatment of COVID-19 in particular [1, 2, 5, 6] . Therefore, more comprehensive investigations are needed for understanding the mechanisms of these traditional Chinese medicines, and for unveiling their benefits and adverse effects. A key step towards such investigations is to obtain the chemical ingredients of these traditional Chinese medicines, particularly the molecular structures and activities. In addition to the literature surveys [5, 6] , it is of interest to explore the These databases also provide a variety of the activity-related information useful for mechanistic investigations ( Table 1) Weiping Chen designed this work and wrote the manuscript.

The authors state no conflict of interest and have received no payment in preparation of this manuscript. 

Traditional Chinese medicine for COVID-19 treatment

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The pros and cons of traditional Chinese medicines in the treatment of COVID-19

Chemical Composition and Pharmacological Mechanism of Qingfei Paidu Decoction and Ma Xing Shi Gan Decoction Against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): In Silico and Experimental Study

A Review of Therapeutic Agents and Chinese Herbal Medicines Against SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19)

Review on the potential action mechanisms of Chinese medicines in treating Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

We acknowledge the support from the National Key R&D Program of China