COVID-19: a case for inhibiting IL-17?

IL-17 and IL-17 receptor inhibitors boast an impressive safety history and are widely available. Here, we argue that targeting IL-17 is immunologically plausible as a strategy to prevent acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and discuss why we think that a clinical trial of a drug in this class could be a logical addition to the effort to find effective therapies. Levels of the cytokine IL-17 positively correlate with disease severity in COVID-19. Here, the authors argue that existing anti-IL-17 therapies should be considered for the treatment of severe COVID-19.