ReviewThe Lancet. Respiratory medicine2021
Interleukin-6: obstacles to targeting a complex cytokine in critical illness.
Review in The Lancet. Respiratory medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 161 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
161 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 252 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Effectiveness and safety of tocilizumab in refractory noninfectious uveitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of tocilizumab and baricitinib among patients hospitalized for COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Long-Term Efficacy and Safety of Satralizumab in Patients With Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder From the SAkuraMoon Open-Label Extension Study.Neurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation · 2025Trial
- Adjunctive Systemic Corticosteroids for Pulmonary Exacerbations of Cystic Fibrosis.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2024Trial
- Enteral citrulline supplementation versus placebo on SOFA score on day 7 in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients: the IMMUNOCITRE randomized clinical trial.Critical care (London, England) · 2023Trial
- Effect of Kinesio tape and Compression sleeves on delayed onset of muscle soreness: a single-blinded randomized controlled trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2023Trial
- Trial
- A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of intravenous alpha-1 antitrypsin for ARDS secondary to COVID-19.Med (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Trial
- Evaluating the risk of elevated IL-6 levels in pediatric patients: a stratified approach and evidence of interaction effects.Translational pediatrics · 2026Article
- Clinical characteristics of bloodstream infections in the patients receiving anti-IL-6 receptor antibody.Infection · 2026Article
- A portable nanobiosensor with machine learning: enabling multi-cytokines point-of-care testing and early identification of sepsis immunoparalysis.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2026Article
- Interleukin-6 is a mediator of therapeutic efficacy in acute lung injury.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2026Article
- Temperature-dependent replication and sensitivity to innate immunity of human coronavirus HKU1.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Circulating alpha-1 antitrypsin and its c-terminal peptides differentiate bacterial from viral community-acquired pneumonia.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- The molecular ICU: a primer on omics, informatics and the future of precision critical care.Critical care (London, England) · 2026Review
- Cellular crosstalk and signaling networks in the rheumatoid arthritis synovial microenvironment.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Epidemiology, bacterial coinfection risk factors, and inflammatory markers in children with RSV, AdV, and hMPV pneumonia in Zunyi, China.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Association of early interleukin-6 level with injury severity and mortality in trauma patients: Systematic review and meta-analysis.World journal of critical care medicine · 2026Article
- Comparative toxicity of menthol- and tobacco-flavored electronic cigarette constituents inducing inflammation, epithelial barrier dysfunction, and nicotinic acetylcholine receptor modulation in the absence of nicotine.Toxicology reports · 2026Article
101 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Circulating concentrations of the pleiotropic cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) are known to be increased in pro-inflammatory critical care syndromes, such as sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Elevations in serum IL-6 concentrations in patients with severe COVID-19 have led to renewed interest in the cytokine as a therapeutic target. However, although the pro-inflammatory properties of IL-6 are widely known, the cytokine also has a series of important physiological and anti-inflammatory functions. An adequate understanding of the complex processes by which IL-6 signalling occurs is crucial for the correct interpretation of IL-6 concentrations in the blood or lung, the use of IL-6 as a critical care biomarker, or the design of effective anti-IL-6 strategies. Here, we outline the role of IL-6 in health and disease, explain the different types of IL-6 signalling and their contribution to the net biological effect of the cytokine, describe the approaches to IL-6 inhibition that are currently available, and discuss implications for the future use of treatments such as tocilizumab in the critical care setting.
Indexed as
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.