The preventive effect of Xuebijing injection against cytokine storm for severe patients with COVID-19: A prospective randomized controlled trial

COVID-19 is severely affecting countries globally and mortality is high. Xuebijing (XBJ) injection is widely used in the treatment of severe pneumonia and sepsis in China due to its anti-inflammatory effect and immunoregulation. This study investigated whether Xuebijing injection can prevent the cytokine storm and reduce the mortality from severe COVID-19. This was a randomized, double-blinded trial in which 60 eligible patients were recruited from the First people's Hospital of Jingzhou from February 16 to March 25 in 2020. A total of 57 completed the trial, 3 dropped out. The treatment group received routine medication plus Xuebijing injection while the control group received routine medication plus saline. The secretion of interleukin-6(IL-6), interleukin-8(IL-8) and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) was suppressed significantly (P