An Exploration of the Safety of "Pneumonia Prevention No. 1" in Healthy Populations

Zuo-Huan Meng; Wen-Yuan Ma; Ying Wang; Ya-Rong Li; Jing Zhang; Yin-Fang Liu; Xin-Ke Zhao; Chun-He Da

doi:10.2147/IDR.S377974

An Exploration of the Safety of "Pneumonia Prevention No. 1" in Healthy Populations

Infect Drug Resist. 2022 Nov 23:15:6695-6701. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S377974. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zuo-Huan Meng^#¹, Wen-Yuan Ma^#¹, Ying Wang², Ya-Rong Li², Jing Zhang³, Yin-Fang Liu⁴, Xin-Ke Zhao^{5

6}, Chun-He Da⁶

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Baiyin, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Pharmacy, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Baiyin, People's Republic of China.
³ Nutrition Department, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Baiyin, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Respiratory Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Baiyin, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, People's Republic of China.
⁶ The Third Affiliated Hospital of Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Baiyin, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: "Pneumonia Prevention No.1" belongs to 'traditional Chinese medicine prescription for prevention of viral pneumonia and influenza' was urgently formulated by Notice on Printing the Novel Coronavirus Diagnosis and Treatment Scheme for COVID-19 (Trial Version 3) and Traditional Chinese Medicine Prevention and Treatment Scheme for COVID-19 in Hubei Province (Trial). Because the prescription drug has the bidirectional regulation function of human immune function, moderate improvement of immune function can effectively resist virus invasion, while excessive immune function will produce immune overresponse. Excessive immune response will aggravate the condition of patients with COVID-19, resulting in the death of severe patients.

Methods: Twenty medical workers aged 20-60 years old, who had no immune disease, no current disease and healthy physical examination, were selected as participants. The participants took Hubei "Pneumonia Prevention No.1" decoction, one dosage each day, twice a day, for 7 consecutive days. With the before-after control method, blood samples were collected from the median cubital veins before and after medication. Immunoglobulin IgA, IgG and IgM were measured by immunoturbidimetry, and T lymphocyte subsets CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD4/CD8 were measured by flow cytometry. The changes of indexes before and after medication were compared with SPPS 13.0 statistical software. The data were expressed by (mean ± standard deviation). T-test was adopted, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Results: The results of this study show that in healthy participants, the immunoglobulin and T lymphocyte subsets did not differ significantly before and after drug administration (P > 0.05).

Conclusion: Under normal drug administration circumstances, "Pneumonia Prevention No. 1" had no significant regulating effect on the immune system in a healthy population and did not increase the immune system capacity beyond a reasonable range. It is safe to be used as a prophylactic measure in healthy populations.

Keywords: T lymphocyte; healthy population; immunoglobulin; safe medication; “Pneumonia Prevention No. 1”.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Baiyin Science and Technology Planning Project (grant No 2020-ZX), Science and Technology Public Relations Project of the First People’s Hospital of Baiyin (grant No 2020YK-09) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant no 2020YFC2005504).