Abstract
Objectives: COVID-19 has become a global epidemic, and effective therapies have not been discovered up to now. We conducted this study to explore the effectiveness and safety of tocilizumab recently used for treating COVID-19.
Method: A comprehensive search was conducted (up to September 27, 2020), and 19 eligible records were identified according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data of the studies were extracted by 2 independent reviewers and were analyzed to evaluate the safety and availability of tocilizumab for treating COVID-19.
Results: Thirteen retrospective case-control studies (n = 2285 patients) and 6 retrospective single-armed studies (n = 208) were retrieved in this study. In the comparison of tocilizumab treatment group (TCZ) and standard treatment group (ST), significant associations with a lower risk of admission to ICU, use of ventilation, and mortality (OR, 95% CI: 0.53, 0.26~1.09; 0.66, 0.46~0.94; 0.44, 0.36~0.55) were found in the tocilizumab treatment group. What is more, patients treated with tocilizumab had better clinical improvement compared with the patients treated with ST (OR, 1.24; 95% CI, 0.96~1.62). After taking tocilizumab, the patients had lower C-reactive protein (CRP), white blood cell count (WBC), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (WMD, 95% CI: – 99.66, – 156.24~- 43.09; – 0.95, – 1.8~- 0.11; – 12.58, – 18.88~-6.29) but higher troponin (WMD, 7.61; 95% CI, 3.06~12.15) than before. In addition, tocilizumab did not have significant influence on patients’ neutrophil count (Neut), lymphocyte count (Lymp), platelet count (Plt), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and creatine (WMD, 95% CI: – 0.29, – 2.91~2.33; 0.42, – 0.23~1.07; 5.2, – 2.85~13.25; 22.49, – 2.73~47.7; – 44.78, – 93.37~3.81).
Conclusion: Tocilizumab may have potential effectiveness to treat COVID-19 according to the results of this study. However, more large-scale studies are needed for more accurate conclusions.
Keywords: COVID-19; IL-6 blockade; Meta-analysis; Tocilizumab.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Meta-analysis, Tocilizumab, IL-6 blockade, 【초록키워드】 Mortality, Tocilizumab, IL-6, Ventilation, C-reactive protein, CRP, ICU, Lymphocyte count, Epidemic, White blood cell, Patient, Effectiveness, Aspartate aminotransferase, Platelet, Clinical improvement, AST, WBC, Admission, patients, case-control study, association, ALT, retrospective, exclusion criteria, alanine aminotransferase, 95% CI, standard treatment, neutrophil count, lower risk, treatment group, effective therapy, treat, treating COVID-19, Inclusion, independent, analyzed, evaluate, the patient, addition, conducted, treated, eligible, patients treated, Plt, retrieved, TCZ, 【제목키워드】 Retrospective study, Systemic review,