The new findings need to be taken in the context of past research on COVID-19 and IL-6 inhibitors, which has been mixed.ДЄnother study, which was just published in the British medical journal BMJ, found that tocilizumab was no better than standard treatments in a small group of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Brazil. However, in the U.S., IL-6 inhibitors do not have emergency use authorization for COVID-19, which means they are not recommended for use outside of a clinical trial.

In Great Britain, health authorities have issued an alert asking doctors to consider using the medications when treating COVID-19 patients. Patients taking both of the IL-6 inhibitors along with corticosteroids did even better yet, leading the authors to suggest the вЂњbenefit of using both IL-6 receptor antagonists and corticosteroids together in this critically ill population.вЂќ Meanwhile, fewer people taking the IL-6 inhibitors died (22 percent in the sarilumab group and 28 percent in the tocilizumab arm) than did individuals not taking either drug (36 percent). The hypothesis panned out: Patents taking tocilizumab or sarilumab had 10 and 11 days, respectively, without the need for organ support while those in the control group had none. (Being published on a preprint server means the study has not yet gone through peer review.) All of the patients had recently been admitted to the intensive care unit and all needed organ-support machines. Most were also taking corticosteroids and about a third were also on the antiviral medication remdesivir. In a recent study from an international team of researchers that was published on a preprint server earlier this month, about 800 patients with severe cases of coronavirus were randomly assigned to receive tocilizumab, sarilumab, or standard care. Some of the damage from COVID-19 may come from an overblown immune response - the so-called вЂњcytokine storm.вЂќД«oth tocilizumab and sarilumab help dial down IL-6, which researchers hypothesized may help quell inflammation in the bodyвЂ™s response to COVID-19. Tocilizumab and sarilumab are disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) that target an immune system protein called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which plays a role in increasing inflammation in the body. Two are FDA-approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis and some other rheumatic conditions: tocilizumab (Actemra) and sarilumab (Kevzara).Д«ut a number of studies have issued conflicting results over the past few months, leaving researchers to conclude that, well, more research is likely needed before these drugs become widely used. One class of medications that continues to make the spotlight as a potential treatment for severe cases of COVID-19 is known as interleukin-6 (IL-6) inhibitors. Studies on other treatments (like the anti-TNF biologics commonly used for conditions like inflammatory arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease) and the gout drug colchicine are currently underway. The JAK inhibitor baricitinib (Olumiant) received emergency use authorization to treat severe COVID-19 along with remdesivir. On the other hand, the steroid dexamethasone *has* been shown to help reduce COVID-19 deaths and has become standard of care. Over nearly a year since the pandemic began, medications commonly used to treat rheumatic conditions have been considered for their role in targeting various aspects of COVID-19вЂ™s effects on the body.ДЇirst, there was the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine (which has since been found ineffective as a coronavirus treatment). Rheumatology drugs continue to draw attention for their potential in treating severe COVID-19, but the findings are anything but clear-cut.

Il 6 inhibitor