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Review
. 2021 Jun;21(6):337-339.
doi: 10.1038/s41577-021-00553-8.

Is IL-6 a key cytokine target for therapy in COVID-19?

Simon A Jones  1   2 , Christopher A Hunter  3
Affiliations
Review

Is IL-6 a key cytokine target for therapy in COVID-19?

Simon A Jones et al. Nat Rev Immunol. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

The identification of elevated IL-6 levels in patients with severe COVID-19 led to the rapid development of clinical trials targeting this cytokine. Overall, these trials do not support the widespread use of IL-6 antagonists in hospitalized patients with mild-to-moderate disease, but IL-6 antagonists may be beneficial when rapidly deployed in patients with severe COVID-19, as we discuss here.

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Conflict of interest statement

S.A.J. has received research support from GSK, Mestag Therapeutics, Hoffmann la Roche, NovImmune SA, and Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and consultancy from Sanofi-Regeneron, GSK, Janssen, EUSA Pharmaceuticals, NovImmune SA., Chugai Pharmaceutical and Hoffmann la Roche. C.A.H. has received research support from Janssen.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Targeting the IL-6 signalling pathway.
a | The figure depicts the three modes of IL-6 signalling and the biological outcomes associated with each that may be relevant to COVID-19. The biological significance of IL-6 trans-presentation requires further evaluation. b | Drugs targeting the IL-6 pathway can bind to IL-6 to stop interactions with IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) or gp130, target IL-6R to block IL-6 binding or target the IL-6–soluble IL-6R (sIL-6R) complex to inhibit trans-signalling.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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