Effective treatment of severe COVID-19 patients with tocilizumab

[Yonnie3]

There have been a couple of posts about this drug on DU.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213269685
Experimental drug Actemra (tocilizumab) may help with the cytokine storm from COVID-19

and

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213350856
Case Study: Patient with COVID-19 and Multiple Myeloma successfully treated with Tocilizumab

I found this published today via this tweet

Link to tweet

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/27/2005615117#T1

<snip>
Treatment Outcomes.

The body temperature of all patients dramatically returned to normal on the first day after receiving tocilizumab and remained stable thereafter (Fig. 2B). Clinical symptoms were significantly relieved synchronously in the following days. The peripheral oxygen saturation improved remarkably (Fig. 2 C and D). Fifteen patients (15/20, 75.0%) had lowered their oxygen intake within 5 d after the treatment with tocilizumab. Among these patients, one patient did not need further oxygen therapy. Among the three patients who used ventilator, one patient was taken off the noninvasive ventilator on the first day after tocilizumab, one patient had tracheal extubated and regained consciousness on the fifth day and another one on the eleventh day.

<snip>

Conclusion

In summary, tocilizumab effectively improve clinical symptoms and represses the deterioration of severe COVID-19 patients. Therefore, tocilizumab is an effective treatment in severe patients of COVID-19, which provided a therapeutic strategy for this fatal infectious disease.

<snip>

From a quick skim of the paper there seems to be a profound positive effect.

[Mike 03]

1. Thank you for finding this.

Very interesting results.

[mopinko]

2. i've been wondering about humabs.

sorta wondering before about the long term effects that are gonna pop up. humera has been on the market for almost 20 years, i believe.
i saw one story of beneficial side effects that had popped up, but dont remember what it is now.
all this shit boils down to inflammation. anything that prevents inflammation in the body anywhere benefits the whole body. autoimmune diseases all have secondary symptoms far from the main target.
not at all surprised that this works. i wonder what the drug is usually prescribed for.

miracles and wonders.

[Yonnie3]

4. Arthritis drugs

Mike 03 posted https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213354817 Monday.

Closely watched arthritis drug disappoints as a Covid-19 treatment, studies show

The variations in what happens in the individual cases from asymptomatic to lung dis-function and so on are extreme. I wonder if it is possible that the virus has multiple avenues in the human body and many different factors are in play as to what/which treatments are going to help depending on the path it takes. For instance this particular drug may only be useful if the patient has a cytokine storm.

[mopinko]

5. another thing entirely.

that was a drug that incidentally worked on arthritis and ai.
this was a drug, engineered to attack a single immune system element. the process that is stops is the cytokine storm that is killing people.
very, very, different.

[Yonnie3]

6. I though your question was what was this drug, tocilizumab used for.

It was developed for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Humira (Adalimumab) as you say was targeting a specific immune element and is used for arthritis for the most part.

All I could find about it was "A study evaluating adalimumab in COVID-19 infection has recently been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2000030089)."

A search on the registry id (ChiCTR2000030089) doesn't show any results yet, just that it was registered in March.

[mopinko]

7. humira also treats crohn's disease.

it targets a immune factor called tnf, tumor necrosing factor. cancer killer. that's why so many have cancer warnings. the same factor that attacks cartilage in ra targets the intestines in crohns. other ai diseases have similar shared roots but different targets.

[Mike 03]

3. Was just listening to the doctors at NYU Langone Medical Center

(They have a radio station on SiriusXM)

This is one of three drugs they sound like they are getting a little bit excited about. Until recently, they have been negative on most of the ideas floating around out there, including remdesivir. The three were:

tocilizumab
sarilumab
colchicine (an old gout medication, incidentally)