Mechanism of new coronavirus pneumonia agreement prescription on 2019 novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia based on network pharmacology analysis and the validation.

PURPOSE: To investigate the mechanism of action underlying the effective treatment of New Coronavirus Pneumonia Agreement Prescription (NCPAP) on 2019 Novel Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia (2019-NCIP) using network pharmacology.

METHODS: In this retrospective study, 50 patients with 2019-NCIP were recruited, including 16 who received symptomatic treatment and 34 that received NCPAP formula treatment on the basis of symptomatic treatment. Hospitalization and lymphocyte percentages were served as efficacy evaluation indicators. Moreover, pharmacological analysis was performed to identify the target disease of NCPAP. Active ingredients in herbs were screened using the Traditional Chinese Medications Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database, and related target genes were identified. We then queried therapeutic target data for coronavirus-associated genes. The protein-protein interaction network was constructed to examine the relationships between these targets. Gene Ontology (GO) and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) network enrichment analyses were conducted using the Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) database.

RESULTS: NCPAP significantly reduced hospitalization time and increased both the absolute value and percentage of lymphocytes. Bioinformatics and cytokine analysis suggested that preventing cytokine storm syndrome and regulating immune response are the key mechanisms of NCPAP in treating 2019-NCIP.

CONCLUSIONS: The possible mechanisms of NCPAP in the treatment of 2019-NCIP are reduction of cytokine storms and regulation of the immune response.