"Abstract
Artemisia annua and its phytocompounds have a rich history in the research and treatment of malaria, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and other diseases. Currently, the World Health Organization recommends artemisinin-based combination therapy as the first-line treatment for multi-drug-resistant malaria. Due to the various research articles on the use of antimalarial drugs to treat coronaviruses, a question is raised: would A. annua and its compounds provide anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) properties? ... This is the first comprehensive overview of the application of compounds from A. annua against SARS-CoV-2/coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) describing all target proteins. A. annua’s biological properties, the signaling pathways implicated in the COVID-19, and the advantages and disadvantages for repurposing A. annua compounds are discussed."
5. Conclusion
Importantly, A. annua may re-modulate the host’s innate and adaptive immune system and assist in reducing the cytokine storm, ARDS, [acute respiratory distress syndrome] and COVID-19 symptoms. Advantages for repurposing artemisinins include low toxicity, safer higher dosages, few side- effects, cost-effectiveness, easy production, pre-existing pharma- cokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies showing good profiles, well-understood modes of administration, drug sensitization to design drug and/or herbal-combination therapies, reduction of drug resistance (when drugs are associated), and dosage predictability based on other disease protocols. The evidence reviewed here supports future research and clinical trials to further understand the use of A. annua for the SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID19 prevention, reduction of severity, treatment of different phases of the disease, and management of symptoms."
© 2021 Shanghai Yueyang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. All rights reserved.
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