Therapeutic drug combinations against COVID-19 obtained by employing a collaborative filtering method

Ruiyuan Yao; Fan Yang; Jianing Liu; Qiang Jiao; Hong Yu; Xiushan Nie; Hongkai Li; Xin Wang; Fuzhong Xue

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14023

Therapeutic drug combinations against COVID-19 obtained by employing a collaborative filtering method

Heliyon. 2023 Mar;9(3):e14023. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14023. Epub 2023 Feb 25.

Authors

Ruiyuan Yao^{1

2}, Fan Yang², Jianing Liu³, Qiang Jiao³, Hong Yu⁴, Xiushan Nie⁵, Hongkai Li², Xin Wang¹, Fuzhong Xue²

Affiliations

¹ Department of the Pharmacology of Traditional Chinese Medical Formulae, Shandong University of Chinese Medicine, China.
² School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, China.
³ School of Information Science and Technology, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, China.
⁴ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Computational Intelligence, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China.
⁵ School of Computer Science and Technology, Shandong Jianzhu University, China.

Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has severely harmed human society and health. Because there is currently no specific drug for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, we used a collaborative filtering algorithm to predict which traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) would be effective in combination for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. First, we performed drug screening based on the receptor structure prediction method, molecular docking using q-vina to measure the binding ability of TCMs, TCM formulas, and neo-coronavirus proteins, and then performed synergistic filtering based on Laplace matrix calculations to predict potentially effective TCM formulas. Combining the results of molecular docking and synergistic filtering, the new recommended formulas were analyzed by reviewing data platforms or tools such as PubMed, Herbnet, the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) database, the Guide to the Dispensing of Medicines for Clinical Evidence, and the Dictionary of Chinese Medicine Formulas, as well as medical experts' treatment consensus in terms of herbal efficacy, modern pharmacological studies, and clinical identification and typing of COVID-19 pneumonia, to determine the recommended solutions. We found that the therapeutic effect of a combination of six TCM formulas on the COVID-19 virus is the result of the overall effect of the formula rather than that of specific components of the formula. Based on this, we recommend a formula similar to that of Jinhua Qinggan Granules for the treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia. This study may provide new ideas and new methods for future clinical research.

Classification: Biological Science.

Keywords: COVID-19; Collaborative filtering; Drug combination; SARS-CoV-2; Traditional Chinese medicine.