Abstract: Objective To observe the therapeutic effect of bezoar cultured in vitro on a mouse model of human coronavirus pneumonia caused by the lung-attacking damp-heat virus.Methods The therapeutic effect of bezoar cultured in vitro (0.128, 0.064, 0.032 g/kg) against a model was evaluated by comparing the effects of the drug on the lung index, inhibition rate of the lung index, viral load of lung tissue, contents of inflammatory factors IL-1 β, CD14, MDA and SOD in lung tissue, contents of cAMP and PGE-2 in the hypothalamus, and on percentages of CD4⁺ T lymphocytes, CD8⁺ T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes in peripheral blood. Results The weight of the model mice was reduced, food and water intakes decreased significantly, the reaction of the mice became slow, their skin went dry and less lustrous, the stool was sticky, the amount of urine became smaller and looked yellow. Bezoar cultured in vitro reduced the lung index of model mice, significantly inhibited the expression of viral nucleic acid in lung tissue, significantly reduced the content of inflammatory factors CD14 and MDA in lung tissue, but significantly increased the content of SOD, significantly reduced the content of cAMP in the hypothalamus of model mice, hardly changed the content of PGE2, but significantly increased the percentage of CD4⁺ T cells and CD8⁺ T cells in model mice.Conclusion Bezoar cultured in vitro has significant therapeutic effect against the mouse model of the syndrome of human coronavirus pneumonia with lung-attacking damp-heat virus by reducing the lung index, regulating the contents of cAMP and PGE2 in the hypothalamus, regulating the immune function and inhibiting the release of inflammatory factors.

Key words: coronavirus pneumonia, bezoar cultured in vitro, pathogenesis of traditional Chinese medicine, lung-attacking damp-heat virus, immune function, inflammatory cytokines