A Chinese herbal formula Kesuting Syrup against COVID‐19: Leveraging multidimensional computations in network pharmacology‐driven experimental and clinical trials

A Chinese herbal formula Kesuting Syrup against COVID-19: Leveraging multidimensional computations in network pharmacology-driven experimental and clinical trials Dear Editor, The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has spread across the globe.Variants of the pathogen, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have been continually developing.COVID-19 threatens people's health and hinders economic development. 1Using drug repurposing, Kesuting Syrup as a registered herbal formula in China can potentially treat COVID-19.Rutin is a key compound of Kesuting Syrup for COVID-19 therapy by regulating IFN-γ.Multidimensional network pharmacology-driven clinical study may be a promising method for drug development.Kesuting Syrup, a Chinese Medicine formula, has been registered by National Medical Products Administration in China since 2002 (National registered number: Z20025238).It treated upper respiratory symptoms satisfactorily, such as sore throat and cough.The drug quality and intake safety are guaranteed since it has been used for over 20 years.The Kesuting Syrup is composed of nine herbs, including Reineckea carnea (JI-Xiang-Cao), Solomonseal rhizome (Huang-Jing), Disporum cantoniense (Bai-Wei-Shen), Platycodonis radix (Jie-Geng), Saxifraga stolonifera (Hu-Er-Cao in Chinese), Eriobotryae folium (Pi-Pa-Ye), Ephedrae herba (Ma-Huang), Mori Cortex (Sang-Bai-Pi) and Papaveris pericarpium (Ying-Su-Ke).All the intake doses of each herb in Kesuting Syrup are in the safety range as documented in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.Based on the long-term clinical efficacy of Keketing Syrup, it has obvious therapeutic effect on the syndrome of cold-damp epidemic virus invading lung due to coronavirus pneumonia in mouse model. 2 Notably, we have also clinically validated that Kesuting Syrup may effectively treat the symptoms of COVID-19 infected by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. 3Now, the primary epidemic strain in China is also the Omicron variant. 4,5The symptoms mainly include sore throat and cough. 6,7Since the main symptom of COVID-