Lu L, Zhang H, Zhan M, Jiang J, Yin H, Dauphars DJ, Li S-Y, Li Y and He Y-W (2020) Preventing Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: Which Cytokine to Target in a Raging Storm? Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 8:677. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.00677
Lu L, Zhang H, Zhan M, Jiang J, Yin H, Dauphars DJ, Li S-Y, Li Y and He Y-W (2020) Preventing Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: Which Cytokine to Target in a Raging Storm? Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 8:677. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.00677
Cite as:
Lu L, Zhang H, Zhan M, Jiang J, Yin H, Dauphars DJ, Li S-Y, Li Y and He Y-W (2020) Preventing Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: Which Cytokine to Target in a Raging Storm? Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 8:677. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.00677
Lu L, Zhang H, Zhan M, Jiang J, Yin H, Dauphars DJ, Li S-Y, Li Y and He Y-W (2020) Preventing Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: Which Cytokine to Target in a Raging Storm? Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 8:677. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.00677
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has resulted in tremendous morbidity and mortality worldwide. A major underlying cause of COVID-19 mortality is a hyperinflammatory cytokine storm in severe/critically ill patients. Although many clinical trials are testing the efficacy of targeting inflammatory cytokines/chemokines in COVID-19 patients, the critical inflammatory mediator initiating COVID-19 patient death is undefined. Here we suggest that the immunopathological pathway leading to COVID-19 mortality can be divided into three stages with distinct clinical features that can be used to guide therapeutic strategies. Our interpretation of the recently published clinical trials from COVID-19 patients suggests that the clinical efficacy in preventing COVID-19 mortality using IL-1 blockade is subjected to notable caveats, while that for IL-6 blockade is suboptimal. We discuss critical factors in determining appropriate inflammatory cytokine/chemokine targets, timing, and combination of treatments to prevent COVID-19 mortality.
Medicine and Pharmacology, Pathology and Pathobiology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
