Br J Haematol IL-1 Blockade With Anakinra in Acute Leukaemia Patients With Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia Appears Safe and May Result in Clinical Improvement

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Br J Haematol


. 2020 May 21.
doi: 10.1111/bjh.16873. Online ahead of print.
IL-1 Blockade With Anakinra in Acute Leukaemia Patients With Severe COVID-19 Pneumonia Appears Safe and May Result in Clinical Improvement


James W Day ^{1 2} , Thomas A Fox ^{1 2} , Richard Halsey ¹ , Ben Carpenter ¹ , Panagiotis D Kottaridis ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 32438450
• DOI: 10.1111/bjh.16873

Abstract

As of 17th May, 2020 the number of patients infected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide has exceeded 4.5 million (WHO 2020). A subgroup of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia develop a hyperinflammatory syndrome which has a similar cytokine release profile to secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) (Huang, et al 2020). Immunomodulatory drugs are hypothesised to abrogate the dysfunctional immune response in hyperinflammatory COVID-19 and are currently being investigated in clinical trials. IL-1 blockage with anakinra has been shown to be safe and is associated with clinical improvement in patients with hyperinflammatory COVID-19 (Cavalli, et al 2020).