Acute lung injury: options to improve oxygenation

Pentoxifylline Effects on Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients with Cytokine Storm Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial

COVID-19 is a fatal, fast-spreading pandemic, and numerous attempts are being made around the world to understand and manage the disease. COVID-19 patients may develop a cytokine-release syndrome, which causes serious respiratory diseases and, in many cases, death. The study examined the feasibility of employing legally available anti-inflammatory pentoxifylline (PTX), a low toxicity and cost medication, to mitigate the hyper-inflammation caused by COVID-19. Thirty adult patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV2 were hospitalized owing to the cytokine storm syndrome. They were given 400 mg of pentoxifylline orally TID according to the standard COVID-19 protocol of the Egyptian Ministry of Health. Besides this, a group of thirty-eight hospitalized COVID-19 patients who received the standard COVID-19 protocol was included in the study as a control group. The outcomes included laboratory test parameters, clinical improvements, and number of deaths in both groups. After receiving PTX, all patients showed a significant improvement in C reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels at p < 0.01 and p = 0.004, respectively, while there was an increase in total leukocyte count (TLC) and neutrophil-to-leucocyte ratio (NLR) at p < 0.01 compared to their baseline levels. The D-dimer level showed a significant increase in the treatment group at p < 0.01, while showing no statistically significant difference in the control group. The median initial ALT (42 U/L) in the treatment group showed a decrease compared to the control group (51 U/L). No statistical significance was reported regarding clinical improvement, length of stay, and death percentages between the two groups. Our results showed no significant improvement of PTX over controls in clinical outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Nevertheless, PTX displayed a positive effect on certain inflammatory biomarkers.

Treatment of COVID-19 with pentoxifylline: Could it be a potential adjuvant therapy?

The world is facing a viral pandemic of a new coronavirus called COVID‐19. Pentoxifylline is a methyl‐xanthine derivative and it inhibits the phosphodiesterase IV (PDE IV). This drug is known for its unique features as an immunomodulatory and anti‐inflammatory agent, also it could have antiviral affects. This is a scoping review, in which all related articles on COVID‐19 and the probable benefits of Pentoxifylline against COVID‐19 pathogenesis, in Medline, Scopus, Web of Sciences, and Google Scholar up to 20 March 2020 with proper keywords including: pentoxifylline, Pentoxil, COVID‐19, coronavirus, treatment, anti‐inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antifibrosis, oxygenation, circulation, bronchodilator, ARDS, and organ failure. We found many confirmatory data on proper efficacy of pentoxifylline on controlling COVID‐19 and its consequences. The antiviral, anti‐inflammatory, anti‐oxidative, immune‐modulatory, bronchodilator and respiratory supportive effects and protective roles in organ failures of PTX, along with its main functions means better circulation‐oxygenation properties, low price and safety, make it a promising drug to be considered for COVID‐19 treatment, especially as an adjuvant therapy in combination with other drugs.