Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 May;19(5):102523.
doi: 10.1016/j.autrev.2020.102523. Epub 2020 Mar 20.

COVID-19 infection and rheumatoid arthritis: Faraway, so close!

Ennio Giulio Favalli  1 , Francesca Ingegnoli  2 , Orazio De Lucia  3 , Gilberto Cincinelli  4 , Rolando Cimaz  5 , Roberto Caporali  2
Affiliations
Review

COVID-19 infection and rheumatoid arthritis: Faraway, so close!

Ennio Giulio Favalli et al. Autoimmun Rev. 2020 May.

Abstract

The outbreak of the new coronavirus infections COVID-19 in December 2019 in China has quickly become a global health emergency. Given the lack of specific anti-viral therapies, the current management of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-2) is mainly supportive, even though several compounds are now under investigation for the treatment of this life-threatening disease. COVID-19 pandemic is certainly conditioning the treatment strategy of a complex disorder as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), whose infectious risk is increased compared to the general population because of an overall impairment of immune system typical of autoimmune diseases combined with the iatrogenic effect generated by corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs. However, the increasing knowledge about the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection is leading to consider some anti-rheumatic drugs as potential treatment options for the management of COVID-19. In this review we will critically analyse the evidences on either positive or negative effect of drugs commonly used to treat RA in this particular scenario, in order to optimize the current approach to RA patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Cytokine release syndrome; DMARDs; Rheumatoid arthritis; Treatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Zhou P., Yang X.-L., Wang X.-G., Hu B., Zhang L., Zhang W. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. 2020;579:270–273. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tang X., Wu C., Li X., Song Y., Yao X., Wu X. On the origin and continuing evolution of SARS-CoV-2. Natl Sci Rev. 2020 doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwaa036. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wu Z., McGoogan J.M. Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: summary of a report of 72 314 cases from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Jama. 2020;323 doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.2648. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zhang J.-J., Dong X., Cao Y.-Y., Yuan Y.-D., Yang Y.-B., Yan Y.-Q. Clinical characteristics of 140 patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China. Allergy. 2020 doi: 10.1111/all.14238. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Guan W.-J., Ni Z.-Y., Hu Y., Liang W.-H., Ou C.-Q., He J.-X. Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. New Engl J Medicine. 2020 doi: 10.1056/nejmoa2002032. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances