Interleukin‐6 blocking agents for treating COVID‐19 patients (search up to 25 February 2021)
Citation: Ghosn L, Chaimani A, Evrenoglou T, et al. Interleukin‐6 blocking agents for treating COVID‐19: a living systematic review. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2021;(3):CD013881.
What is this? Interleukin‐6 blocking agents have been suggested as treatments for COVID-19.
In this living Cochrane review, the authors searched for randomised trials of interleukin‐6 blocking agents for COVID-19 patients. They did not restrict their searches by language of publication and did the most recent search on 26 February 2021. They included 9 tocilizumab trials (6428 participants) and two sarilumab trials (880 participants), with one trial testing both drugs. They also identified 39 additional trials of interleukin‐6 blocking agents with no results available, of which 9 were completed and 7 were terminated.
What works: At the time of this rapid review, the included studies showed that tocilizumab reduced mortality in the first 28 days after treatment compared to standard care alone or placebo and probably resulted in slightly fewer serious adverse events than standard care alone or placebo.
What doesn’t work: Nothing noted.
What’s uncertain: At the time of this rapid review, the included studies showed that the effects of sarilumab are uncertain.
At the time of this rapid review, the effects of other interleukin‐6 blocking agents are uncertain because no studies were available.