Treatment Options during Cytokine Storm

Authors

Abdullah Alkattan^{1, 2, *,} , Kentaro Oh-hashi³, Mahmoud Kandeel^{1, 4, *}

¹Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Hofuf, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia

²Department of Research and Development, General Directorate of School Health, Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

³Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Science, Faculty of Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu 501-1193, Japan

⁴Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafrelshikh University, Kafrelshikh 33516, Egypt

^*Corresponding authors. Email: abdullahalkattan@gmail.com; mkandeel@kfu.edu.sa

DOI

10.2991/dsahmj.k.210422.001How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Cytokine storm; monoclonal antibodies; inflammation; COVID-19

Abstract

Cytokine storm is the major cause of death in patients with acute respiratory distress caused by COVID-19. Because cytokine storm is a life-threatening condition, it is important to treat patients with the most appropriate drugs depending on their infectious pathogen and medical status. In this short review, we highlight the pharmacological and nonpharmacological options for handling the cytokine storm. The potential drug targets comprise the use of small molecule or large macromolecules. These molecules include antibodies to bind with and inhibit the actions of interleukins, cytokine signal transducers such as Janus Kinases (JAKs), and cytokine receptors such as the cytokine receptor colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R). So far, dexamethasone appeared to be the pharmacological treatment of choice in managing or preventing cytokine release syndrome because of its safety and cost-effectiveness. Other pharmacological options either require more studies to prove their efficacy (e.g., anakinra and solnatide) or have shown poor efficacy in recent studies (e.g., tocilizumab). Moreover, specific immunoadsorption techniques can be safe and effective when considering nonpharmacological treatment.

Copyright

© 2021 Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group. Publishing services by Atlantis Press International B.V.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - JOUR
AU  - Abdullah Alkattan
AU  - Kentaro Oh-hashi
AU  - Mahmoud Kandeel
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/04/29
TI  - Treatment Options during Cytokine Storm
JO  - Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Journal
SP  - 48
EP  - 52
VL  - 3
IS  - 2
SN  - 2590-3349
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/dsahmj.k.210422.001
DO  - 10.2991/dsahmj.k.210422.001
ID  - Alkattan2021
ER  -