The cytokine storm – An appropriate, over‐reactive response to SARS‐COV‐2 or the wrong immune pathway?

Bellgrau, Donald; Modiano, Jaime F.

Cytokines are proteins produced by cells of the immune system. Unusually high levels can trigger systemic pathological inflammation, referred to as a cytokine storm. The inference is that this results from a correct but over‐reactive immune response. Pathological changes consistent with cytokine storms have been observed with SARS‐COV‐2‐induced COVID‐19 disease, particularly in hospitalized patients with the severe forms of the disease. Therefore, it has been proposed that, while the virus makes people sick, what puts them in the hospital – and potentially kills them, is not the virus itself, but rather an over‐reactive immune response to the virus.