LAUSR

BACKGROUND The representative anti-COVID-19 herbs, i.e. Poria cocos, Pogostemon, Prunus, and Glycyrrhiza plants, are commonly used in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, a pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Diverse medicinal compounds with favorable anti-COVID-19 activities are abundant in these plants, and their unique pharmacological/pharmacokinetic properties are being revealed. However, the current trends of drug metabolism/pharmacokinetic (DMPK) investigations of anti-COVID-19 herbs have not been systematically summarized. METHODS Here, the latest awareness, as well as the perception gaps of DMPK attributes, in the anti-COVID-19 drug development and clinical usage was elaborated and critically commented. RESULTS The extracts and compounds of P. cocos, Pogostemon, Prunus, and Glycyrrhiza plants show distinct and diverse absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity (ADME/T) properties. The complicated herb-herb interactions (HHIs) and herb-drug interactions (HDIs) of anti-COVID-19 Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herb pair/formula dramatically influence the PK/pharmacodynamic (PD) performance of compounds thereof, which may inspire researchers to design innovative herbal/compound formulas for optimizing the therapeutic outcome of COVID-19 and related epidemic diseases. The ADME/T of some abundant compounds in anti-COVID-19 plants have been elucidated, but DMPK studies should be extended to more compounds of different medicinal parts, species and formulations, and would be facilitated by various omics platforms and computational analyses. CONCLUSION In the framework of systems pharmacology and pharmacophylogeny, the DMPK knowledge base would promote the translation of bench findings into the clinical practice of anti-COVID-19, and speed up the anti-COVID-19 drug discovery and development.