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. 2020 Sep 18:11:560209.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.560209. eCollection 2020.

Efficacy of Early Combination Therapy With Lianhuaqingwen and Arbidol in Moderate and Severe COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Jie Fang  1 , Hui Li  1 , Wei Du  2   3 , Ping Yu  1 , Ying-Yun Guan  1 , Shi-Yu Ma  1 , Dong Liu  2   3 , Wei Chen  2   3 , Guo-Chao Shi  2   3 , Xiao-Lan Bian  1
Affiliations

Efficacy of Early Combination Therapy With Lianhuaqingwen and Arbidol in Moderate and Severe COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Jie Fang et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Objective: Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan City, China, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic. However, no special therapeutic drugs have been identified for COVID-19. The aim of this study was to search for drugs to effectively treat COVID-19.

Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study with a total of 162 adult inpatients (≥18 years old) from Ruijin Hospital (Shanghai, China) and Tongji Hospital (Wuhan, China) between January 27, 2020, and March 10, 2020. The enrolled COVID-19 patients were first divided into the Lianhuaqingwen (LHQW) monotherapy group and the LHQW + Arbidol combination therapy group. Then, these two groups were further classified into moderate and severe groups according to the clinical classification of COVID-19.

Results: The early combined usage of LHQW and Arbidol can significantly accelerate the recovery of patients with moderate COVID-19 by reducing the time to conversion to nucleic acid negativity, the time to chest CT improvement, and the length of hospital stay. However, no benefit was observed in severe COVID-19 patients treated with the combination of LHQW + Arbidol. In this study, both Arbidol and LHQW were well tolerated without serious drug-associated adverse events.

Conclusion: The early combined usage of LHQW and Arbidol may accelerate recovery and improve the prognosis of patients with moderate COVID-19.

Keywords: Arbidol; COVID-19; Lianhuaqingwen; SARS-CoV-2; combination therapy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The flow diagram of this study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Efficacy of LHQW and LHQW + Arbidol treatment among all enrolled COVID-19 patients. (A) Effect on the time to conversion to nucleic acid negativity. (B) Effect on time to chest CT improvement. (C) Effect on length of hospital stay. (D) Comparison of Kaplan–Meier survival curves of LHQW and LHQW + Arbidol treatment in all enrolled COVID-19 patients.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Efficacy of LHQW and LHQW + Arbidol treatment in patients with severe COVID-19. (A) Effect on the time to conversion to nucleic acid negativity. (B) Effect on time to chest CT improvement. (C) Effect on length of hospital stay. (D) Comparison of Kaplan–Meier survival curves in patients with severe COVID-19 treated with LHQW and LHQW + Arbidol.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Efficacy of LHQW and LHQW+ Arbidol treatment in patients with moderate COVID-19. (A) Effect on the time to conversion to nucleic acid negativity. (B) Effect on time to chest CT improvement. (C) Effect on length of hospital stay. (D) Comparison of Kaplan–Meier survival curves between patients with moderate COVID-19 treated with LHQW and LHQW + Arbidol. **P < 0.01.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Efficacy of early LHQW + Arbidol combination therapy in patients with moderate COVID-19. The relationships between the time from illness onset to the administration of LHQW + Arbidol combination therapy and time to conversion to nucleic acid negativity (A), time to chest CT improvement (B), and length of hospital stay (C). Correlation analysis of time from illness onset to the administration of LHQW + Arbidol combination therapy with the time to conversion to nucleic acid negativity (D), time to chest CT improvement (E), and length of hospital stay (F). The comparison of time to conversion to nucleic acid negativity (G), time to chest CT improvement (H), and length of hospital stay (I) between early and non-early LHQW + Arbidol combination therapy administration. **P < 0.01.
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