Explained: What is a cytokine storm? How does it affect Covid-19 patients?

One of the differences between a mild Covid-19 infection and a fatal affliction could be a chaotic response by the body’s own immune system to the virus, known as a cytokine storm.

Cytokines are necessary proteins present throughout the body that have many jobs, with the immune response being one of their main functions. When the body is hurt or infected, cytokines are produced, which then trigger increased blood flow bringing along plasma proteins and white blood cells to the sites of injury to fend off an infection or foreign invaders.

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While the production of cytokines followed by white blood cells is a normal immunogenic response and even beneficial to the body, during a cytokine storm, cytokines are fired off at an unusually high rate and immune cells are recruited non-stop, which begin attacking the body’s own healthy cells, leading to organ failure.

Cytokine storms have been associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which has accounted for a significant number of deaths from the Covid-19 virus, though it can take place even without a viral infection and as a result of other diseases. It was also one of the major causes of death during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.

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Studies have suggested that the condition is because the body doesn’t understand how to respond to the relatively new Covid-19 infection and triggers for cytokine production have been seen to be all over the place in patients and immune systems in the most severe cases mount a defence that is more likely to kill pathogens that are not viruses.

There are several treatments currently being used to suppress the production of these cytokines, primarily Tocilizumab, steroids or immunomodulatory drugs — drugs that can regulate the intensity of the immune system’s response to the infection. However, these drugs can lower the body’s ability to ward off other diseases and infections and may lead to other complications.