ArticleScientific reports2020
Preemptive interleukin-6 blockade in patients with COVID-19.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Beneficial and harmful outcomes of tocilizumab in severe COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Pharmacotherapy · 2021Pooled it
- Investigating the Short-Term Changes of the Electrocardiogram Indicators During Hospitalization in Patients With COVID-19 Following the Use of Tocilizumab.Annals of noninvasive electrocardiology : the official journal of the International Society for Holter and Noninvasive Electrocardiology, Inc · 2026Article
- Enhanced prediction of thrombotic events in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with soluble thrombomodulin.PloS one · 2025Article
- Immune modulation: the key to combat SARS-CoV-2 induced myocardial injury.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Article
- The key role of Calpain in COVID-19 as a therapeutic strategy.Inflammopharmacology · 2022Review
- The interplay between inflammation and thrombosis in COVID-19: Mechanisms, therapeutic strategies, and challenges.Thrombosis update · 2022Review
- Rapid Quantum Magnetic IL-6 Point-of-Care Assay in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Pharmaco-immunomodulatory interventions for averting cytokine storm-linked disease severity in SARS-CoV-2 infection.Inflammopharmacology · 2022Review
- Increased Circulating Cytokines Have a Role in COVID-19 Severity and Death With a More Pronounced Effect in Males: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
- Article
- Plasma Proteome Fingerprints Reveal Distinctiveness and Clinical Outcome of SARS-CoV-2 Infection.Viruses · 2021Observational
- Performance of the Roche IL-6 chemiluminescent immunoassay in patients with COVID-like respiratory symptoms.Journal of virological methods · 2021Article
- Interferon β, an enhancer of the innate immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection.Microbial pathogenesis · 2021Review
- A simple and readily available inflammation-based risk scoring system on admission predicts the need for mechanical ventilation in patients with COVID-19.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2021Article
- Article
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2-Induced Immune Activation and Death of Monocyte-Derived Human Macrophages and Dendritic Cells.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2021Article
- Targeting the Complement Serine Protease MASP-2 as a Therapeutic Strategy for Coronavirus Infections.Viruses · 2021Article
- [COVID-19: Still a place for tocilizumab?]La Revue de medecine interne · 2021Review
- Cytokines and Chemokines in SARS-CoV-2 Infections-Therapeutic Strategies Targeting Cytokine Storm.Biomolecules · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Excessive interleukin-6 signaling is a key factor contributing to the cytokine release syndrome implicated in clinical manifestations of COVID-19. Preliminary results suggest that tocilizumab, a humanized monoclonal anti-interleukin-6 receptor antibody, may be beneficial in severely ill patients, but no data are available on earlier stages of disease. An anticipated blockade of interleukin-6 might hypothetically prevent the catastrophic consequences of the overt cytokine storm. We evaluated early-given tocilizumab in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, and identified outcome predictors. Consecutive patients with initial Sequential-Organ-Failure-Assessment (SOFA) score < 3 fulfilling pre-defined criteria were treated with tocilizumab. Serial plasma biomarkers and nasopharyngeal swabs were collected. Of 193 patients admitted with COVID-19, 64 met the inclusion criteria. After tocilizumab, 49 (76.6%) had an early favorable response. Adjusted predictors of response were gender, SOFA score, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, Charlson comorbidity index and systolic blood pressure. At week-4, 56.1% of responders and 30% of non-responders had cleared the SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharynx. Temporal profiles of interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, NT-ProBNP, D-dimer, and cardiac-troponin-I differed according to tocilizumab response and discriminated final in-hospital outcome. No deaths or disease recurrences were observed. Preemptive therapy with tocilizumab was safe and associated with favorable outcomes in most patients. Biological and clinical markers predicted outcomes.
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