MOSCOW, 28 APR – RIA Novosti. French scientists obtained the first positive results of studies on the use of funds from rheumatoid arthritis in the treatment of coronavirus infection COVID-19, the press release of the French organization Assistance publique – Hopitaux de Paris.
In particular, the obtained results relate to trials of immunodepressor tocilizumab, a monoclonal antibody that blocks the receptor for the cytokine interleukin-6, which is used mainly in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
In the study were selected patients hospitalized with moderate or severe symptoms of pneumonia caused COVID-19, without requiring stay in the ICU for admission. As endpoints, the criterion testifying about the failure of the study, were the need for ventilation or death on the 14th day after the start of observations. In total, the study involved 129 patients, 64 of whom received standard treatment, and 65 patients were given tocilizumab also.
“Much smaller proportion of patients achieved the endpoint in the group with tocilizumab”, – said in a statement.
Hypercytokinemia, or “cytokine storm” – an immune system response in which inflammation is an uncontrolled surge of cytokines, informational molecules that alert cells about the need to fight once in the body of the virus. As a result, begins the destruction of not only tissue foci of inflammation, but also to neighboring tissues.
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