Biological sex is associated with heterogeneous responses to IL-6 receptor inhibitor treatment in COVID-19-A retrospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT: COVID-19 is associated with higher inflammatory markers, illness severity and mortality in males compared to females. Differences in immune responses to COVID-19 may underpin sex- specific outcome differences. We hypothesised that anti-IL-6 receptor monoclonal antibodies are associated with heterogenous treatment effects between male and female patients. We conducted a retrospective cohort study assessing the interaction between biological sex and anti-IL-6 receptor antibody treatment with respect to hospital mortality or progression of respiratory failure. We used a Cox proportional hazards regression model to adjust for age, ethnicity, steroid use, baseline C-reactive protein, and COVID-19 variant. We included 1274 patients, of which 58% were male and 15% received anti-IL-6 receptor anti

SUBMITTER: Stein DF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10439929 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature