Potential Benefits of Tryptophan Metabolism to the Efficacy of Tocilizumab in COVID-19

Potential Benefits of Tryptophan Metabolism to the Efficacy of Tocilizumab in COVID-19

Ciriana Orabona, Maria Laura Belladonna

Tocilizumab has been proposed as a means of opposing hyperinflammatory responses in intensive care patients with COVID-19. Here, we briefly discuss the potentially multiple, synergistic mechanisms whereby tocilizumab might exert therapeutic activity, mostly focusing on the production of tryptophan-derived catabolites that would result from blockade of IL-6 signaling, as contextualized to the cytokine storm occurring in COVID-19 patients.

2020

Tocilizumab, IDO1, COVID-19, tryptophan catabolism, Cytokine storm syndrome

DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2020.00959

Frontiers in Pharmacology

Frontiers Media S.A.

Therapeutics. Pharmacology