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. 2022 Aug 22;12(1):14296.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-15338-9.

Honghua extract mediated potent inhibition of COVID-19 host cell pathways

Malika Madikyzy #  1 , Meruyert Tilegen #  1 , Guldan Nazarbek  1 , Chenglin Mu  2   3 , Aidana Kutzhanova  1 , Xugang Li  2 , Cuiping Ma  4 , Yingqiu Xie  5
Affiliations

Honghua extract mediated potent inhibition of COVID-19 host cell pathways

Malika Madikyzy et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Honghua (Carthami flos) and Xihonghua (Croci stigma) have been used in anti-COVID-19 as Traditional Chinese Medicine, but the mechanism is unclear. In this study, we applied network pharmacology by analysis of active compounds and compound-targets networks, enzyme kinetics assay, signaling pathway analysis and investigated the potential mechanisms of anti-COVID-19. We found that both herbs act on signaling including kinases, response to inflammation and virus. Moreover, crocin likely has an antiviral effect due to its high affinity towards the human ACE2 receptor by simulation. The extract of Honghua and Xihonghua exhibited nanozyme/herbzyme activity of alkaline phosphatase, with distinct fluorescence. Thus, our data suggest the great potential of Honghua in the development of anti-COVID-19 agents.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Protein–protein interaction networks of Honghua and Xihonghua related gene targets against COVID-19 targets analyzed by Metascape. A subset of clusters shown by network layout with terms which are indicated by a circle node, in which size represents the number of genes, and color indicates the function or pathways. Similarity scores more than 0.3 were linked by an edge as the thickness indicating the score. The dashed inset shows the nodes by color intensity corresponding to p-value.
Figure 2
Figure 2
GO enrichment of Honghua (A) and Xihonghua (B) against COVID-19.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Honghua and Xihonghua extracts exhibited enzyme activities. (A) SEM of Honghua (HH) and Xihonghua (XHH). (B) The fluorescence spectrum of Honghua and Xihonghua at the nanoscale. (C) Nanozyme kinetics of nanoscale of filtered Honghua (HHF) extract.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The Honghua and Xihonghua targets against kinases pathways by GO and KEGG analysis of intersections network.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The Honghua and Xihonghua targets against COVID-19/kinases pathways by GO and KEGG analysis of intersections network. Blue arrows indicate the differential pathways while pink arrows indicate common pathways in KEGG enrichment analysis.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Intersectional potent signaling analysis of alkaline phosphatase related genes list against COVID-19 by Venn Diagram.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Alkaline phosphatase nanozyme activity of extract of Honghua (HH filter) catalyzing NBT/BCIP compared to the cold water extract. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
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