key: cord-0746380-0avg4lcg
authors: Hormati, Ahmad; Ghadir, Mohammad Reza; Zamani, Farhad; Khodadadi, Javad; Khodadust, Fatemeh; Afifian, Mahboubeh; Aminnejad, Reza; Ahmadpour, Sajjad
title: Are there any association between COVID-19 severity and immunosuppressive therapy?
date: 2020-05-28
journal: Immunol Lett
DOI: 10.1016/j.imlet.2020.05.002
sha: a73a4d388c6a48915ce21a4a717b7e07e9e17304
doc_id: 746380
cord_uid: 0avg4lcg

nan

Are there any association between COVID-19 severity and immunosuppressive therapy? This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

The novel coronavirus, formerly called SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), is a health threating disease that has so far spread from China to all around the world [1] [2] [3] . So far, no study has been performed to support the benefits of immunosuppressive drugs in patients with % before treatment to 84 % after treatment). Also, not only CRP level get closer to its normal level, but also in continual chest CT following, we noticed that radiologic findings disappeared. One case of death was related to a patient that was older than the other two patients.

Previously Xu X and et.al., reported that tocilizumab (IL-6 receptor blocker used for both rheumatoid arthritis and cytokine release syndrome) improved CT scan abnormalities and oxygen saturation, and normalized CRP levels and J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f lymphocytes count in most of the patients [4] . In this regard, phase II study has been approved by Italian Regulatory Drug Agency (AIFA). In the end, we concluded that there is relation between corona virus severity symptoms and immunosuppressive therapy. It seems that symptoms of COVID infection are partly associated with the inflammatory cascade and hyperinflammatory syndrome, which may be the leading cause of mortality [5] . Therefore, our findings further validated the immunosuppressive drug benefits, especially IL-6 receptor antagonist for the emergency use in critical infected COVID-19

patients.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and coronavirus

COVID-19): the epidemic and the challenges

The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)-An emerging global threat

Outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, China: The mystery and the miracle

Effective treatment of severe COVID-19 patients with Tocilizumab

COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f

Table1: Characteristics of IBD and AIH patients according to outcome and related treatment protocols. The majority of patients reported that they resided at the high risk areas of the city. 

Age, Mean ± SD (year) 48.4 ± 11 42.5 ± 6.5 a BMI; Mean ± SD 19.7 ± 1.6 20.1 ± 0.7

Cough with mild fever (≤38 •c ) 21 (14) 9 (18) Sore Throat 9 (6) 4 (8)