Chair and Department of Biochemistry, Medical University of Warsaw, Banacha 1, Warsaw, Poland.
Phytother Res. 2021 Feb;35(2):629-636. doi: 10.1002/ptr.6852. Epub 2020 Sep 9.
Currently, over 100 countries are fighting against a common enemy, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2, which causes COVID-19. This has created a demand for a substance whose effectiveness has already been demonstrated in a similar scenario. Glycyrrhizin (GZ) is a promising agent against SARS-CoV-2 as its antiviral activity against SARS-CoV has already been confirmed. It is worthwhile to extrapolate from its proven therapeutic effects as there is a high similarity in the structure and genome of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. There are many possible mechanisms through which GZ acts against viruses: increasing nitrous oxide production in macrophages, affecting transcription factors and cellular signalling pathways, directly altering the viral lipid-bilayer membrane, and binding to the ACE2 receptor. In this review, we discuss the possible use of GZ in the COVID-19 setting, where topical administration appears to be promising, with the nasal and oral cavity notably being the potent location in terms of viral load. The most recently published papers on the distribution of ACE2 in the human body and documented binding of GZ to this receptor, as well as its antiviral activity, suggest that GZ can be used as a therapeutic for COVID-19 and as a preventive agent against SARS-CoV-2.
目前，有超过 100 个国家正在共同对抗一种共同的敌人，即严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒（SARS-CoV-2），该病毒引发了 COVID-19。这就产生了对一种已在类似情况下证明有效的物质的需求。甘草酸（GZ）是一种有前途的抗 SARS-CoV-2 药物，因为其对 SARS-CoV 的抗病毒活性已得到证实。鉴于 SARS-CoV 和 SARS-CoV-2 在结构和基因组上高度相似，从其已证明的治疗效果推断是值得的。GZ 对抗病毒的作用机制有很多种：增加巨噬细胞中一氧化氮的产生、影响转录因子和细胞信号通路、直接改变病毒的脂质双层膜、与 ACE2 受体结合。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了 GZ 在 COVID-19 环境中的可能用途，局部给药似乎很有前途，鼻腔和口腔是病毒载量较高的部位。最近发表的关于 ACE2 在人体中的分布以及 GZ 与该受体结合及其抗病毒活性的论文表明，GZ 可用于治疗 COVID-19 以及预防 SARS-CoV-2。
