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Tocilizumab immunotherapy is already prescribed for people with acute rheumatoid arthritis, but experiments now show that it can be used in people with coronavirus in months without the need for trials.
British scientists support, according to a report from the Mirror website, that the use of immunotherapy in patients with Covid-19, insisting that it could save lives.
Medical experts are now pressing, according to a report in a British newspaper, to carry out a more urgent investigation into the effect of the immune system drug tocilizumab on the deadly corona virus.
Arthritis medications
Dr. Doug Brown, president of the British Society for Immunology, said similar medications have helped seriously ill patients in Spain, adding: “Immunotherapy is a viable option that can save lives.”
Professor Kevin Harrington, a biological therapist at the Cancer Research Institute, agreed: “There is a real possibility that this could save the lives of coronavirus patients who would otherwise die.”
“And the hope is that those would have survived the virus, which means less time on the ventilator and less time in intensive care.”
“You will probably use this in patients with the most serious illnesses, which is quite a reasonable idea,” added Professor Will Irving of the University of Nottingham, a UK virologist.
How does immunotherapy work on the Corona virus?
The drug attacks small proteins called cytokines that overstimulate the immune system and have an inflammatory effect in arthritis patients, which amplify in Covid-19 lung tissues and other organs.
It is believed that “tusilizumab” could give seriously ill virus victims a better chance, and today’s doctors can legally use tusilizumab in a coronary patient, but will have to accept personal responsibility.
“These treatments are not licensed to Covid, but some doctors have tried to reuse Tucilizumab and it appears to have had some effect,” said Dr. Brown, president of the British Society for Immunology.
He urged further research: “Once the data is collected extensively, it is really important that we disseminate the data and provide clinicians with the information they need to make the right decisions.” Tocilizumab can also be licensed specifically for coronavirus if done through traditional experiments.
This occurs at a time when the United States has allowed the emergency use of antiviral Ebola to treat Covid-19, and a recent clinical trial has shown that the drug helped shorten recovery time for critically ill patients, although it did not significantly improve survival rates.
