Significance of IL-6 70% reduction by Leronlimab
Post# of 148293
This, for me, is the most important part of the last interactive interview (of course apart from learning the shape of the patients in general).
So, what is the meaning of a substantial reduction on IL-6 (Interleukin-6) as far as COVID goes??.
Well, COVID is so new that not much research exists in the subject. However, there is some research on a similar indication, Community acquired pneumonia (CAP). At the end stages of COVID the patients are suffering effects similar to pneumonia which is nothing else that a viral (or bacterial) lung inflammation. This condition is very deadly: hospitalized CAP patients with elevated IL-6 level have a 93.4% higher risk level for lethal outcome. The 101 patients enrolled in this trial, 76 (75.2%) males and 25 (24.8%) females. The average age of the enrolled patients was 63.7 ± 11.8 years. This is very similar to what we are having now with COVID (in regards to negative outcomes).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4073574/
Quote:
IL-6 production is initiated by inflammatory reaction induced by trauma, stress and infection. IL-6 has much longer plasma half-life than other pro-inflammatory cytokines, and that is why IL-6 serves as a very useful marker of pro-inflammatory cytokine activation. Several studies found positive correlation between serum IL-6 concentration at admission and endmost mortality in CAP. IL6 was shown to have independent predictive value in CAP mortality.
Quote:
The conclusions: Based on ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curve analysis (AUC ± SE = 0.934 ± 0.035; 95%CI (0.864-1.0); P = 0.000) hospitalized CAP patients with elevated IL-6 level have 93.4% higher risk level for lethal outcome. As a predictor of mortality at the cut-off value of 20.2 pg/ml IL-6 shows sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 87%.
Bottom line: for CAP the levels of IL-6 predict the mortality rate pretty damn well. If this is the case for COVID as well (until today, I don’t think anybody knows this for certain) the reduction of 70% on IL-6 achieved by Leronlimab is a life-saver with no questions about it. It would be nice to learn to what level these values where reduced to (a normal male has a value of 0 – 3.5 pg/ml in plasma).
The above is just my opinion assuming that COVID will respond as CAP ; as the preliminary reactions from the two first patients seem to indicate.