The first antiviral drugs effective against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were recently approved in the UK and USA. Several more are still being investigated. In Environmental Microbiology, a researcher from the Laboratory of Gene Technology has been exploring what we know so far.
Tocilizumab
Tocilizumab is an IL-6 receptor inhibitor that can bind the IL-6 receptor to inhibit signal transduction. Greek researchers noticed that in some severe COVID-19 patients, CD14 monocytes showed low expression of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR. IL-6 was upregulated in these patients and is known to inhibit HLA-DR expression. As well as this, Chinese researchers identified high IL-6 levels as biomarkers of severe COVID-19, alongside viral RNA in the blood.
