Abstract
An outbreak of pneumonia caused by a novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is ongoing in China [1]. The disease caused by 2019-nCoV was recently named as COVID-19 by WHO. Although the case-fatality rate of COVID-19 (about 2.3% up to now) is lower than SARS, they share many similarities [2,3]. Early studies have shown that increased pro-inflammatory cytokines were associated with pulmonary inflammation and extensive lung damage in SARS patients [4], while the latest report on COVID-19 showed that 2019-nCoV infection lead to high amounts of both Th1 and Th2 cytokines [5]. Moreover, ICU patients had higher levels of GCSF, IP10, TNFα, MCP1, IL2, IL7, IL10, MIP1A, suggesting the cytokine storm was associated with disease severity [5]. Corticosteroid therapy was frequently gave as a combined regimen for possible benefit by reducing inflammatory-induced lung injury. However, the drug is immunosuppressive and may delay viral clearance if given before viral replication is controlled [6], side-effects of corticosteroid also occurred in other cases [7]. Therefore, novel anti-inflammatory molecules could be considered in the treatment of COVID-19.
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