Opinion Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 6, 2020; 8(19): 4280-4285
Published online Oct 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i19.4280
Role of monoclonal antibody drugs in the treatment of COVID-19
Claudio Ucciferri, Jacopo Vecchiet, Katia Falasca
Claudio Ucciferri, Jacopo Vecchiet, Katia Falasca, Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine and Science of Aging, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Chieti 66100, Italy
Claudio Ucciferri, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Molise, Campobasso 66100, Italy
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Katia Falasca, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Clinic of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine and Science of Aging, University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini, Chieti 66100, Italy. k.falasca@unich.it
Received: May 26, 2020
Peer-review started: May 26, 2020
First decision: June 15, 2020
Revised: June 29, 2020
Accepted: September 8, 2020
Article in press: September 8, 2020
Published online: October 6, 2020
Processing time: 124 Days and 3.3 Hours
Abstract

Currently clinicians all around the world are experiencing a pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The clinical presentation of this pathology includes fever, dry cough, fatigue and acute respiratory distress syndrome that can lead to death infected patients. Current studies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continue to highlight the urgent need for an effective therapy. Numerous therapeutic strategies have been used until now but, to date, there is no specific effective treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Elevated inflammatory cytokines have been reported in patients with COVID-19. Evidence suggests that elevated cytokine levels, reflecting a hyperinflammatory response secondary to SARS-CoV-2 infection, are responsible for multi-organ damage in patients with COVID-19. For these reason, numerous randomized clinical trials are currently underway to explore the effectiveness of biopharmaceutical drugs, such as, interleukin-1 blockers, interleukin-6 inhibitors, Janus kinase inhibitors, in COVID-19. The aim of the present paper is to briefly summarize the pathogenetic rationale and the state of the art of therapeutic strategy blocking hyperinflammation.

Keywords: Tocilizumab; Anakinra; Canakinumab; Ruxolitinib; Clazakizumab; Siltuximab; Sarilumab; Baricitinib; Tofacitinib

Core Tip: Elevated inflammatory cytokines have been reported in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Evidence suggests that elevated cytokine levels and high levels in inflammatory markers are responsible for multi-organ damage in patients with COVID-19. Numerous randomized clinical trials are currently underway to explore the effectiveness of interleukin-1 blockers, interleukin-6 inhibitors. Or other strategies. For this reason it is necessary to make the point about using biopharmaceutical drugs in COVID-19.