ArticlePeerJ2020
The efficacy of IL-6 inhibitor Tocilizumab in reducing severe COVID-19 mortality: a systematic review.
Article in PeerJ, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 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
40 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of tocilizumab in the treatment of COVID-19: An umbrella review.Reviews in medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- Guidelines on the treatment with integrated traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine for severe coronavirus disease 2019.Pharmacological research · 2021Guideline
- Tocilizumab administration for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Respirology (Carlton, Vic.) · 2021Pooled it
- Interleukin-6 (IL-6) inhibitors as therapeutic agents for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of infection and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Optimal use of tocilizumab for severe and critical COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.F1000Research · 2021Pooled it
- Intravenous methylprednisolone with or without tocilizumab in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia requiring oxygen support: A prospective comparison.Journal of infection and public health · 2021Trial
- Tocilizumab in Hospitalized Patients with Severe Covid-19 Pneumonia.The New England journal of medicine · 2021Trial
- Subcutaneous tocilizumab in adults with severe and critical COVID-19: A prospective open-label uncontrolled multicenter trial.International immunopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Article
- IL-6 Inhibits Invasion in a Murine Model of Endometriosis.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2025Article
- Detection of serum composition in pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome associated with SARS-CoV-2 and the response for the treatment by FTIR.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The disruptive role of LRG1 on the vasculature and perivascular microenvironment.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2024Review
- Network-based integrative multi-omics approach reveals biosignatures specific to COVID-19 disease phases.Frontiers in molecular biosciences · 2024Article
- Airway epithelial cells and macrophages trigger IL-6-CD95/CD95L axis and mediate initial immunopathology of COVID-19.iScience · 2023Article
- Large-Scale Biomedical Relation Extraction Across Diverse Relation Types: Model Development and Usability Study on COVID-19.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Article
- Good Outcome With Respect to Acute Necrotizing Encephalitis in Children Associated With Post-infectious SARS-CoV-2.Cureus · 2023Article
- The Important Role of Interleukin-2 in COVID-19.Journal of immunology research · 2023Review
- Anti-inflammatory effect of euphane- and tirucallane-type triterpenes isolated from the traditional herbFrontiers in chemistry · 2023Article
- Therapeutic Efficacy and Outcomes of Remdesivir versus Remdesivir with Tocilizumab in Severe SARS-CoV-2 Infection.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn the absence of highly effective antiviral therapies against SARS-CoV-2, it is crucial to counter the known pathophysiological causes of severe COVID-19. Evaluating the efficacy existing drugs may expedite the development of such therapeutics. Severe COVID-19 is largely the result of a dysregulated immune response characterized by lymphocytopenia, neutrophilia and critical hypercytokinemia, or "cytokine storm," which is largely mediated by the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6). The IL-6 inhibitor tocilizumab (TCZ) could potentially suppress the effects of the pro-inflammatory cytokine and thereby lower mortality from the disease. This systematic analysis aimed to investigate and synthesize existing evidence for the efficacy of TCZ in reducing COVID-19 mortality. METHODOLOGY: PubMed and SearchWorks searches were performed to locate clinical studies with primary data on TCZ treatment for severe COVID-19. Sixteen case-control studies comparing mortality between TCZ and standard of care (SOC) were identified for quantitative synthesis. The systematic analysis was pre-approved through PROSPERO (CRD42020193479).
resultsCombined mortality for the TCZ-treated and SOC groups were 26.0% and 43.4% respectively. In all but one of the studies, the odds ratio of mortality from COVID-19 pointed towards lower fatality with TCZ vs the SOC. A combined random effects odds ratio calculation yielded an odds ratio of 0.453 (95% CI [0.376-0.547],
conclusionsImportant caveats to this research include the lack of prospective randomized control trials and the absence of data from the large COVATA study from the published literature. However, results from this systematic analysis of published research provide positive evidence for the potential efficacy of TCZ to treat severe COVID-19, validating the ethical basis and merit of ongoing randomized controlled clinical trials.
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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.