Pandey Anamika, Khan Mohd Kamran, Hamurcu Mehmet, Gezgin Sait
Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey.
Front Plant Sci. 2020 Oct 15;11:568890. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.568890. eCollection 2020.
The sudden emergence of COVID-19 caused by a novel coronavirus (nCoV) led the entire world to search for relevant solutions to fight the pandemic. Although continuous trials are being conducted to develop precise vaccines and therapeutic antibodies, a potential remedy is yet to be developed. Plants have largely contributed to the treatment of several human diseases and different phytoconstituents have been previously described to impede the replication of numerous viruses. Despite the previous positive reports of plant-based medications, no successful clinical trials of phyto-anti-COVID drugs could be conducted to date. In this article, we discuss varying perspectives on why phyto-anti-viral drug clinical trials were not successful in the case of COVID-19. The issue has been discussed in light of the usage of plant-based therapeutics in previous coronavirus outbreaks. Through this article, we aim to identify the disadvantages in this research area and suggest some measures to ensure that phytoconstituents can efficiently contribute to future random viral outbreaks. It is emphasized that if used strategically phyto-inhibitors with pre-established clinical data for other diseases can save the time required for long clinical trials. The scientific community should competently tap into phytoconstituents and take their research up to the final stage of clinical trials so that potential phyto-anti-COVID drugs can be developed.
新型冠状病毒（nCoV）引发的COVID-19的突然出现，促使全世界寻找抗击这一流行病的相关解决方案。尽管正在不断进行试验以开发精确的疫苗和治疗性抗体，但尚未找到潜在的治疗方法。植物在多种人类疾病的治疗中发挥了重要作用，此前已有不同的植物成分被描述可阻止多种病毒的复制。尽管此前有关于植物性药物的积极报道，但迄今为止尚未成功开展针对植物抗COVID药物的临床试验。在本文中，我们讨论了关于植物抗病毒药物临床试验在COVID-19案例中未成功的不同观点。该问题已结合植物性疗法在以往冠状病毒爆发中的使用情况进行了讨论。通过本文，我们旨在找出该研究领域的不足之处，并提出一些措施，以确保植物成分能够有效地应对未来随机发生的病毒爆发。需要强调的是，如果策略性地使用具有其他疾病既定临床数据的植物抑制剂，可以节省长期临床试验所需的时间。科学界应充分利用植物成分，并将其研究推进到临床试验的最后阶段，以便开发出潜在的植物抗COVID药物。
