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Comment
. 2020 Nov 30;21(1):315.
doi: 10.1186/s12931-020-01548-0.

Letter to the Editor in response to Chen et al. 2020

Jaya Ponnampalam  1 , George Seligmann  2 , Tanaya Gandhi  2 , Dilen Parmar  2
Affiliations
Comment

Letter to the Editor in response to Chen et al. 2020

Jaya Ponnampalam et al. Respir Res. .

Abstract

We would like to comment on the article entitled "Association between cytokine profiles and lung injury in COVID-19 pneumonia" by Li-Da Chen and colleagues, with respect to emerging data regarding the immunopathogenesis of COVID-19. Chen et al. demonstrated the relevance of IL-2R, IL-6 and TNF-α in the cytokine storm and IL-6 as an independent predictor for COVID-19 severity. Del Valle et al. corroborated these findings with regard to IL-6 and disease severity, however, they also showed IL-8 to be of significance. This may be explained by the varying techniques used by the two studies to determine severity. Further studies including critically ill patients and the analysis of mortality rates in this patient cohort would greatly enhance the clinical relevance of these findings. As speculated by Chen et al., early studies on the use of tocilizumab in COVID-19 patients were promising, however, full results from ongoing trials are required to confirm a survival benefit in patients treated with tocilizumab. Moreover, investigating the roles of other pro-inflammatory cytokines and their impact on disease severity could potentially inform novel therapeutic targets.

Keywords: Coronavirus disease 2019; Cytokines; Interleukin-6; Tocilizumab.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Comment on

References

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