Research progress of traditional Chinese medicine against COVID-19

Abstract Background Currently, the number of confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19 worldwide continues to rise, receiving great concern from the international community. However, there is no specific and widely accepted effective vaccines. The experience in controlling the outbreak in China has proven the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Objectives This review aims to evaluate the role of TCM in COVID-19 treatment, hoping to provide references for prevention and control of global pandemic. Data sources China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Web of Science, Baidu Scholar, ScienceDirect, Elsevier and PubMed were used to search literatures published from December 2019 to December 2020 by entering the keywords “Traditional Chinese medicine”, “COVID-19”, “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2”, “Pathogenesis”, “Syndrome differentiation”, “Prescriptions” and their combinations. Hence, we have performed an extensive review of research articles, reviews and primary scientific studies to identify TCM against COVID-19. Results Among clinical treatments of COVID-19, several TCM prescriptions and characteristic therapies have been effectively suggested, the underlying mechanisms of which are mainly involved in antiviral, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory and organ-protective effects of multi-components acting on multi-targets at multi-pathways. Conclusions This review may provide meaningful and feasible information that can be considered for the treatment of COVID-19 pandemic globally.