Prevention and treatment of COVID-19 disease by controlled modulation of innate immunity

Read article

ABSTRACT

The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), triggered by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), poses an enormous threat to public health and global economies.

Human coronaviruses normally cause mild or non-mild respiratory illness, but in the past two decades, potentially fatal coronavirus infections have emerged, causing respiratory tract diseases such as pneumonia and bronchitis:

• these include severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), followed by Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and most recently the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus outbreak that emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

Currently, most patients with COVID-19 receive traditional supportive care, including respiratory support.

To stop the continued spread of the pandemic coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and rescue patients, established drugs and new therapies are being evaluated.

Since it will be some time before a safe and effective vaccine is available, the immediate priority is to harness innate immunity to accelerate early antiviral immune responses.

Second, since excessive inflammation is a major cause of pathology, targeted anti-inflammatory responses are being evaluated to reduce the damage induced by respiratory tract inflammation and cytokine storms. Here, we highlight prominent immunotherapies in various stages of development that target increased immunity against coronavirus and reduction of pathologic inflammation.