AKT1 and COVID-19: Reduning is a TCM injection composed of Artemisia annulosa, honeysuckle, and gardenia, which is recommended for the treatment of critical COVID-19 patients by “the Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for COVID-19 (Trial ninth Edition).” Our previous studies confirmed that Reduning could improve sepsis-induced acute lung injury (SALI) by downregulating LPS-induced apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) through the PI3K–AKT pathway and thereby improving vascular endothelial barrier function (Wang et al., 2022a).