Absorbed plant MIR2911 in honeysuckle decoction inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication and accelerates the negative conversion of infected patients

Dear Editor,The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is one of the most serious global public health crises to date.As of July 12, 2020, more than 12.6 million cases of COVID-19 infection with 0.56 million deaths were confirmed worldwide 1 .Since there are no effective therapeutics to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19) infection so far, the pandemic is rapidly spreading worldwide.It is urgent to develop effective therapies, not only to treat infected patients but also to control the pandemic.Our previous studies have demonstrated that a plant microRNA, MIR2911, which is enriched in honeysuckle decoction (HD), directly targets influenza A viruses (IAV), including H1N1, H5N1, and H7N9 subtypes by binding to their mRNA and blocking protein translation.Oral administration of HD can prevent IAV infection and reduce H5N1-induced mouse death 2 .Subsequent studies have shown that MIR2911 also directly inhibits the replication of various viruses in addition to IAVs 3,4 .Upon dietary uptake, these microRNAs self-assemble into