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. 2021 Feb 5:11:634266.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.634266. eCollection 2020.

Yindan Jiedu Granules, a Traditional Chinese Medicinal Formulation, as a Potential Treatment for Coronavirus Disease 2019

Jingyuan Liu  1 , Yuyong Jiang  2 , Yao Liu  2 , Lin Pu  1 , Chunjing Du  1 , Yuxin Li  2 , Xiaojing Wang  2 , Jie Ren  2 , Wei Liu  3 , Zhiyun Yang  2 , Zhihai Chen  4 , Rui Song  4 , Wen Xie  5 , Xianbo Wang  2
Affiliations

Yindan Jiedu Granules, a Traditional Chinese Medicinal Formulation, as a Potential Treatment for Coronavirus Disease 2019

Jingyuan Liu et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Background: Yindan Jiedu Granules (YDJDG) have been newly prescribed as a Chinese herbal formula. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of YDJDG and lopinavir-ritonavir in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: Overall, 131 patients with COVID-19 were included in this study. In addition to standard care, 60 of these patients received YDJDG (YDJDG group) and 71 received lopinavir-ritonavir (lopinavir-ritonavir group). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to match the characteristics of individuals in the two groups, while the Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare the proportion recovery observed. Results: Cox analysis revealed that YDJDG and CD4 ≥ 660 cells/µL were independent predictive factors of proportion recovery. At baseline, disease types differed between the YDJDG and lopinavir-ritonavir treatment groups. Furthermore, no significant adverse effects or toxicities relevant to YDJDG were observed. The median recovery time was 21 days in the YDJDG group and 27 days in the lopinavir-ritonavir group. After PSM (1:1), 50 patient pairs, YDJDG vs. lopinavir-ritonavir, were analyzed. In the YDJDG group, the proportion of recovered patients was remarkably higher than that observed in the lopinavir-ritonavir group (p = 0.0013), especially for those presenting mild/moderate disease type and CD4 < 660 cells/µL. In the YDJDG group, the mean duration of fever and pulmonary exudative lesions was significantly shorter than that observed in the lopinavir-ritonavir group (p = 0.0180 and p = 0.0028, respectively). Conclusion: YDJDG reveals the potential to hasten the recovery period in COVID-19 patients with mild/moderate disease type or CD4 < 660 cells/µL by shortening the mean duration of fever and pulmonary exudative lesions.

Keywords: COVID-19; Yindan Jiedu granules; fever; herbal medicine; pulmonary exudative lesions; recovery proportion.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Study flow chart. YDJDG, Yindan Jiedu granules; COVID-19, Coronavirus disease-2019.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Computed tomography images of the chest before and after treatment. A 45-year-old female who presented with bilateral pulmonary infiltrates at treatment initiation with YDJDG in coronal plane (A) and transverse plane (B); Marked absorption of bilateral pulmonary infiltrates at day 7 of YDJDG treatment (C); Dissipation of lesions at day 14 of YDJDG treatment (D). YDJDG: Yindan Jiedu Granules.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Cox regression analyses for proportion recovery in patients with COVID-19. YDJDG therapy and CD4 ≥ 660 cells/µL are significant factors affecting recovery (p < 0.001 for both). COVID-19, Coronavirus disease-2019; YDJDG, Yindan Jiedu granules.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Kaplan-Meier estimates of proportion recovery. Proportion recovery estimates are shown in all patients before PSM (A) and after PSM (B), after a follow-up of 14 days (C), after a follow-up of 21 days (D), and after a follow-up of 28 days (E). The median and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) are presented in the figure.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Kaplan-Meier estimates of proportion recovery in the subgroups. Proportion recovery estimates are shown for the mild/moderate disease type (A) and severe/critical disease type (B), in the CD4 < 660 cells/µL (C) and CD4 ≥ 660 cells/µL (D) subgroups.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Duration of symptom recovery. Comparison of the duration of fever in the YDJDG and lopinavir-ritonavir groups (A), the duration of cough in the YDJDG and lopinavir-ritonavir groups (B), duration for dissipation of acute pulmonary exudative lesions (C), and duration for the nucleic acid test to turn negative (D).
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
The structure of active seven compounds.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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