Table 1.
Selected drugs used in COVID-19 for counteracting inflammatory pathways/mediators.
| Drug | Clinical phase | Mechanism | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tocilizumab | phase IV for SARS-CoV-2 (ChiCTR2000029765, NCT04310228, NCT04315480, NCT04317092), Phase II for GvHD (NCT02206035, NCT04070781, NCT03434730, NCT03699631) |
human monoclonal anti-IL-6 receptor antibody | De Benedetti et al. (2012).; Kennedy et al. (2014); Xu et al. (2020) |
| Sarilumab | phase II/III study for hospitalized patients with COVID-19 | anti-IL-6 antibody | Zhang et al. (2020a) |
| Siltuximab | patients requiring ICU admission at 29 days |
anti-IL-6 antibody | Chen et al. (2016). |
| Emapalumab | approval for primary HLH | anti-IFN-γ antibody | Al-Salama (2019) |
| Anakinra | phase I for MAS (NCT02780583), phase II for MAS and sepsis (NCT03332225) | IL-1 receptor antagonist, blocking IL-1α and IL-1β |
|
| Infliximab | phase II for HLH, Phase I/II for GvHD (NCT00228839, NCT00228839, NCT00201799), Phase IV for GvHD in combination with daclizumab |
human monoclonal anti-TNF-α antibody | Henzan et al. (2006).; Neurath (2020) |
| Etanercept | Phase II/III for GvHD (NCT00726375, NCT00141739 NCT00141713, NCT00224874, ChiCTR1900024408) | competitively inhibiting TNF-α | Kitko et al. (2016) |
| Adalimumab | not available | anti-TNF-α antibody | Sanchez-Piedra et al. (2020) |
| Certulizumab | not available | anti-TNF-α antibody | Feldmann et al. (2020) |
| Golimumab | not available | anti-TNF-α antibody | Feldmann et al. (2020) |
| Ruxolitinib | phase III for HLH (NCT04120090, NCT03533790), Phase IV for GvHD (ChiCTR1900024408) | JAK inhibitor | Goker Bagca and Biray Avci (2020); Spinelli et al. (2020) |
| Fedratinib | not available | JAK inhibitor | Di Lorenzo et al. (2020) |
| Ruxolitinib | not available | JAK inhibitor | Bergsten et al. (2017). |
| Peficitinib | not available | JAK inhibitor | Bracaglia et al. (2017). |
| Upadacitinib | not available | JAK inhibitor | Luo et al. (2020) |
| Fedratanib | not available | JAK inhibitors | |
| Tofacitinib | preclinical for GvHD | JAK inhibitors | Okiyama et al. (2014) |
| Baricitinib | phase IV for SARS-CoV-2 severe pneumonia | selective JAK1/2 blocker | |
| Bevacizumab | clinical trial in China for COVID-19 (NCT04275414) | humanized monoclonal antibody targeting VEGF | Park et al. (2010); Zhang et al. (2020a),Ko et al. (2019) |
| Corticosteroids | phase II/III for SARS-CoV-2 severe pneumonia (NCT04263402, ChiCTR2000029386, ChiCTR2000029656) | dampen pro-inflammatory cytokines and possess antifibrotic property | Rochwerg et al. (2018); Zha et al. (2020)) |
| IVIG | phase II/III for SARS-CoV-2 (NCT04261426) | provides passive immunity and anti-inflammatory effects | Alijotas-Reig et al. (2020); Emmenegger et al. (2001) |
| IFNs | phase II/III for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis during 28 days |
suppress virus replication | Zhang et al., (2020a) |
GvHD: graft versus host disease, HLH: hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, IFNγ: interferon gamma, IL: interleukin, MAS: macrophage activation syndrome, TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor-alpha, VEGF: vascular endothelial growth factor, VIG: vaccinia immune globulin.