Bevacizumab in Severe or Critical Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia

Summary

The novel identified coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in 2019 causes an nationwide outbreak as well as public health crisis in China, and expands globally. Pulmonary edema is one of the most detrimental symptoms and usually presents in severe and critical coronavirus disease (COVID-19), resulting in dyspnea, acute lung injury (ALI) ,acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and even death. Recent evidence revealed higher levels of blood Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) in COVID-19 patients compared with healthy controls. VEGF is considered as the most potent vascular permeability inducers. Numerous studies have revealed that VEGF was a key factor and a potential therapeutic target in ALI and ARDS. Bevacizumab, an anti-VEGF drug, approved by the FDA on February 26, 2004 and widely used in clinical oncotherapy, is a promising drug for ALI/ARDS in COVID-19 through suppression of pulmonary edema.

Timeline

Start

2020-02-15

Primary completion

2020-04-05

Completion

2020-05-02

Publications

• Pang J, Xu F, Aondio G, Li Y, Fumagalli A, Lu M, Valmadre G, Wei J, Bian Y, Canesi M, Damiani G, Zhang Y, Yu D, Chen J, Ji X, Sui W, Wang B, Wu S, Kovacs A, Revera M, Wang H, Jing X, Zhang Y, Chen Y, Cao Y. Efficacy and tolerability of bevacizumab in patients with severe Covid-19. Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 5;12(1):814. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21085-8.

Drugs

Indications