Is there a role for immune-enhancing therapies for acutely ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019?

ABSTRACT:

Purpose of review

Although the so-called cytokine storm has been early described and related to a dramatic evolution in severe COVID-19 patients, it soon became clear that those patients display clinical and biological evidence of an immunosuppressive state characterized, among other, by a profound lymphopenia. The negative role of this immune suppression on the outcome raises the question on immune therapies that might improve patient's condition.

Recent findings

Important positive effects of active immune therapies, such as IL-7 or thymosin-α are already described and warrant confirmation in larger prospective trials. For other therapies, such as interferons, firm conclusions for critically ill COVID-19 patients are lacking as those patients were often excluded from the pu

SUBMITTER: Wittebole X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8452248 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature