Chinese herbal injections for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A narrative review.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused more than 180 million infections and 3.9 million deaths. To date, emerging clinical evidence has shown the synergetic benefits of Chinese herbal injections in treating this contagious respiratory disease. This review aims to summarize and analyze the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal injections in the therapy of COVID-19. METHODS: The literature from 3 electronic databases, PubMed, CNKI, and Web of Science, were searched using the search terms "COVID-19", "SARS-CoV-2", "traditional Chinese medicine", "herb", "herbal", and "injection". Then the identified articles were comprehensively evaluated. RESULTS: Limited data demonstrated that Chinese herbal injections could significantly improve the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients, especially in combination with conventional treatment strategies. The benefits of which were mainly associated with the relief of symptoms, prevention of secondary infection, regulation of inflammation and immune function. There was also evidence showing the inhibitory effects on SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. Nevertheless, available real-world data suggested the increased risk of adverse event. Furthermore, the defects of existing researches and the insights for discovering novel antiviral drugs were prospectively discussed. CONCLUSION: Evidence-based advances revealed that Chinese herbal injections such as XueBiJing injection and ShenMai injection, exerted potent effects against COVID-19. Further laboratory researches and clinical evaluation are needed to gather scientific evidence on the efficacy and safety.

Tanshinone IIA induces apoptosis and inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion of the osteosarcoma MG-63 cell line in vitro.

Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) is an active ingredient extracted from the widely used Danshen root (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge), a traditional Chinese medicine. Recent studies have indicated that Tan IIA may play important roles in anticancer treatment. However, its effects on the most common primary malignant bone tumor, osteosarcoma (OS), are unknown. Here, we report that Tan IIA may be an efficacious anti-OS drug as it could induce cell apoptosis and inhibit proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. Furthermore, we detected possible molecular mechanisms for Tan IIA activity by examining the levels of Bcl-2, Bax expression, and caspase-3, caspase-8, and caspase-9 activities that regulate apoptosis, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, and MMP-9 involved in regulating migration and invasion. In this study, we find that Tan IIA inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in the human OS cell line MG-63 in a time-dependent and dose-dependent manner. In addition, Tan IIA displays inhibitory activity on OS cell migration and invasion. Mechanistic studies have shown that Tan IIA activity is mediated by caspase activation. Tan IIA was also shown to reduce antiapoptotic Bcl-2, MMP-2, and MMP-9 levels, whereas it increased proapoptotic Bax levels. These data suggest that Tan IIA may be a novel, efficient candidate agent for OS treatment.