The effect of thymosin α1 on mortality of critical COVID-19 patients: A multicenter retrospective study.
Int Immunopharmacol
; 90: 107143, 2021 Jan.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1084141
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Thymosin α1 therapy was commonly used in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), while its impact on outcomes and which patients could benefit from thymosin α1 therapy were uncertain. STUDY DESIGN ANDMETHODS:
Patients with COVID-19 from 19 designated hospitals between January 1 to February 29, 2020 were included, and the main exposure of interest was administration of thymosin α1. The primary outcome was 28-day mortality. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to account for baseline confounders, cluster analysis and Cox proportional hazard model was used to account for subgroup analysis.RESULTS:
A total of 771 patients were included, and 327/771 (42.4%) patients received thymosin α1 therapy. The 28-day mortality in thymosin group was significantly lower than that in control group (41.3% vs. 60.6%, p < 0.001). After PSM 522 patients were included in analysis and the 28-day mortality in thymosin α1 group and control group were 51.0% and 52.9% respectively, with no significant difference. In subgroup analyses, the association between thymosin α1 therapy and 28-day mortality appeared to be stronger among male patients (HR 0.673, 95% CI 0.454-0.998; p = 0.049). There were no benefits of thymosin α1 in 28-day mortality in other subgroups. There were two phenotypes after cluster analysis, but no benefits of thymosin α1 were shown in phenotype 1 (HR 0.823 95% CI 0.581-1.166; p = 0.273) and phenotype 2 (HR 1.148 95% CI 0.710-1.895; p = 0.442).CONCLUSION:
There was no association between use of thymosin α1 and decreased mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Subgroups analysis and phenotype analysis also showed no differences on mortality after thymosin α1 therapy.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Adjuvants, Immunologic
/
Thymalfasin
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
/
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
Int Immunopharmacol
Journal subject:
Allergy and Immunology
/
Pharmacology
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS