Investigation Continues on Repurposed Rheumatology Therapies for COVID-19 Cytokine Storm

But thus far, none of these agents has shown final positive results significant enough to be granted Emergency Use Authorization status by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. “Despite the demonstrations in vitro and in correlation with the clinical cases, we still need to determine their effectiveness with randomized controlled clinical trials,” added Dr. Caricchio. “I think we should all appreciate the unprecedented spectacular effort from the scientific world, which is still tremendous.”

Ruth Jessen Hickman, MD, is a graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is a freelance medical and science writer living in Bloomington, Ind.

References

1. Henderson LA, Canna SW, Schulert GS, et al. On the alert for cytokine storm: Immunopathology in COVID-19. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2020;72(7):1059–1063.
2. Caricchio R, Gallucci M, Dass C, et al. Preliminary predictive criteria for COVID-19 cytokine storm. Ann Rheum Dis. 2020 Sep 25. [Epub ahead of print].
3. Zizzo G, Cohen PL. Imperfect storm: Is interleukin-33 the Achilles heel of COVID-19? Lancet Rheumatol. 2020 Oct 9.