Prof. Dong Zigang’s research team from Zhengzhou University (ZZU) /China-US (Henan) Hormel Cancer Institute has made great progress in the development of anti-COVID-19 drugs. Acetylshikonin, a potent small molecule inhibitor has been found for the first time to have both antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects, which has significant inhibition on SARS-COV-2 papain-like protease PL-pro. Meanwhile, it has remarkable effect on pneumonia caused by SARS-COV-2. The study titled Acetylshikonin inhibits inflammatory responses and Papain-like protease activity in murine model of COVID-19 has been published in the journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy. Prof. Dong Zigang of ZZU is the corresponding author of this paper. Lu Ning (Master’s student) and Gu Tingxuan (Doctoral student) the first authors.