Abstract: Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance 32 (2023) 44–47
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jgar
Short Communication
Cenicriviroc for the treatment of COVID-19: first interim results of a
randomised, placebo-controlled, investigator-initiated, double-blind
phase II trial
Florian Kurth a,b,1,∗, Elisa T. Helbig a,1, Lena J. Lippert a,1, Charlotte Thibeault a,
Gianluca Barbone c, Marius A. Eckart c, Martin Kluge c, Tobias Puengel c, Münevver Demir c,
Robert Röhle d,e, Theresa Keller d, Christoph Ruwwe-Glösenkamp a, Martin Witzenrath a,f,
Norbert Suttorp a, Christof von Kalle g, Leif E. Sander a, Christoph Jochum c, Frank Tacke c,∗∗
a
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Infectious Diseases
and Respiratory Medicine, Berlin, Germany
b
Department of Tropical Medicine, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine and Department of Medicine I, University Medical Centre
Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
c
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Hepatology and
Gastroenterology, Berlin, Germany
d
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Biometry and Clinical
Epidemiology, Berlin, Germany
e
Berlin Institute of Health at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
f
German Centre for Lung Research (DZL), Gießen, Germany
g
Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Clinical
Study Centre (CSC), Berlin, Germany
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 29 November 2021
Revised 2 June 2022
Accepted 12 December 2022
Available online 23 December 2022
Editor by: Prof Marco Falcone
Keywords:
Cenicriviroc
COVID-19
Clinical trial
SARS-CoV-2
ARDS
a b s t r a c t
Objectives: C-C-chemokine receptors (CCRs) are expressed on a variety of immune cells and play an important role in many immune processes, particularly leukocyte migration. Comprehensive preclinical research demonstrated CCR2/CCR5-dependent pathways as pivotal for the pathophysiology of severe COVID19. Here we report human data on use of a chemokine receptor inhibitor in patients with COVID-19.
Methods: Interim results of a 2:1 randomised, placebo-controlled, investigator-initiated trial on the
CCR2/CCR5-inhibitor Cenicriviroc (CVC) 150 mg BID orally for 28 d in hospitalised patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 are reported. The primary endpoint is the subject’s responder status defined by
achieving grade 1 or 2 on the 7-point ordinal scale of clinical improvement on day 15.
Results: Of the 30 patients randomised, 18 were assigned to receive CVC and 12 to placebo. Efficient
CCR2- and CCR5 inhibition was demonstrated through CCL2 and CCL4 elevation in CVC-treated patients
(485% and 80% increase on day 3 compared to the baseline, respectively). In the modified intention-totreat population, 82.4% of patients (14/17) in the CVC group met the primary endpoint, as did 91.7%
(11/12) in the placebo group (OR = 0.5, 95% CI = 0.04–3.41). One patient treated with CVC died of
progressive acute respiratory distress syndrome, and the remaining had a favourable outcome. Overall,
treatment with CVC was well tolerated,..
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