ReviewFrontiers in immunology2020
Cytokine Storm in COVID-19: The Current Evidence and Treatment Strategies.
Review in Frontiers in immunology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 622 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
622 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 1,136 citations in OpenAlex.
- VEGF-A in COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analytical approach to its prognostic value.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Catalase: A Potential Pharmacologic Target for Hydrogen Peroxide in the Treatment of COVID-19.Current topics in medicinal chemistry · 2024Pooled it
- COVID-19 alters human microbiomes: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Pooled it
- The Effect of Nitazoxanide on the Clinical Outcomes in Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Clinical drug investigation · 2022Pooled it
- Genetics of COVID-19 and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2022Pooled it
- Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of zapnometinib: results from a phase I clinical study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Trial
- Utilizing the sublingual form of squalene in COVID-19 patients: a randomized clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Allogenic mesenchymal stromal cells and their extracellular vesicles in COVID-19 induced ARDS: a randomized controlled trial.Stem cell research & therapy · 2023Trial
- Transcriptomics-driven antiviral drug screening identifies ATF6 as a homeostatic regulator of ER stress and innate immunity.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid induces hyperinflammation and vascular leakage through the Toll-like receptor signaling axis in macrophages.Science advances · 2026Article
- Sex-Specific Association of Toll-like Receptor 8 Polymorphisms with COVID-19 Case Status in a Korean Population.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Interleukin-8 in health and disease.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- Heat-inactivated Bacillus spores attenuate poly I:C-induced lung inflammation and microbiome alterations through modulation of host immune responses.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Leveraging ADMET Profiling, Network Pharmacology, and Molecular Docking to Evaluate the Repurposing of Product Nkabinde for COVID-19 Treatment.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Towards a clinical decision protocol for therapeutic plasma exchange based on biomarker patterns and machine learning.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Article
- Metatranscriptomic insights into host-microbiome interactions underlying asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Dynamic Lipidomic Responses to Inflammation and Physical Insult: A Comparative Review Across Blunt Force Trauma, Thermal Burn Injury, and Viral Infection.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Dual Inhibition of COX-2/5-LOX Through Novel Hybrids of NSAIDs and Peptides: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulation and Per-Residue Decomposition.ChemistryOpen · 2026Article
- Viral Pathogens and Pulmonary Fibrosis: EMT-Driven Mechanisms and Insights From Traditional Chinese Medicine.Reviews in medical virology · 2026Review
- Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) as biomarkers of disease severity in COVID-19 patients.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2026Article
562 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) is the pathogen that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). As of 25 May 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has caused 347,192 deaths around the world. The current evidence showed that severely ill patients tend to have a high concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-6, compared to those who are moderately ill. The high level of cytokines also indicates a poor prognosis in COVID-19. Besides, excessive infiltration of pro-inflammatory cells, mainly involving macrophages and T-helper 17 cells, has been found in lung tissues of patients with COVID-19 by postmortem examination. Recently, increasing studies indicate that the "cytokine storm" may contribute to the mortality of COVID-19. Here, we summarize the clinical and pathologic features of the cytokine storm in COVID-19. Our review shows that SARS-Cov-2 selectively induces a high level of IL-6 and results in the exhaustion of lymphocytes. The current evidence indicates that tocilizumab, an IL-6 inhibitor, is relatively effective and safe. Besides, corticosteroids, programmed cell death protein (PD)-1/PD-L1 checkpoint inhibition, cytokine-adsorption devices, intravenous immunoglobulin, and antimalarial agents could be potentially useful and reliable approaches to counteract cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.