COVID-19 infection and rheumatoid arthritis: mutual outburst cytokines and remedies

Abstract

In March 2020, COVID-19 infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been declared to be a global pandemic, where its complications, severity and mortality are reported to be due to the released inflammatory cytokines or the so-called cytokine storm. This is quite similar to that observed in the autoimmune and chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was hypothesized that RA patients are at a higher risk of acquiring COVID-19; however, recent studies reported that they are not when compared to the rest of the population. In this review, we aim to highlight the mutual pathological features, cytokine profiles and risk factors between COVID-19 and RA. Also, many researchers are currently working to explore therapeutic agents that could aid in the eradication of COVID-19 infection. Due to the similarity between the inflammation status in COVID-19 and RA, many anti-rheumatic drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab, baricitinib and anakinra were proposed to be therapeutic modalities for COVID-19 infection.

Keywords:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• COVID-19
• anti-rheumatic
• cytokines
• DMARDs

Transparency

Declaration of funding

The authors have no funding to declare.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors declare that the work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

All authors were involved in the conception and design, as well as the drafting and revision of the paper.