April 2023
Contributions from traditional knowledge and history have proven useful in recent years to advance drug discovery. In the section Testimonies COVID-19, Jianan Huang researcher at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), analyzes the discovery of drugs to fight Covid-19 influenced by traditional Chinese medicine.
According to the author, despite its resistance, for various reasons, Chinese medicine served as a source of inspiration for developing new treatments at three different levels: traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, traditional Chinese medical formulas, and traditional Chinese medical texts.
A networked pharmacological approach was developed to source Chinese medicinal herbs with potential to treat covid-19 and to investigate their underlying mechanisms. The initial results defined the top ten most widely used Chinese medicinal herbs. Further explorations have been inspired by the formulas in ancient Chinese medicine, rather than only herbal medicine and ethnopharmacology.
Other investigations have advanced in the discovery of drugs to combat COVID-19 with inspiration from traditional Chinese medical texts and records, unlocking the potential of ancient medical treatises for contemporary medical therapies. Specifically with regard to COVID-19, the Treatise on cold diseases and miscellaneous diseases and the Treatise on differentiation and treatment of seasonal warm diseases (Wen bing tiao bian) by Wu Jutong (1758-1836) have been highlighted.
Huang J. Discovery of drugs to combat covid-19 inspired by traditional Chinese medicine. Hist cienc saude-Manguinhos [Internet].
