Lessons Learned From Clinical Trials of Immunotherapeutics for COVID-19.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus was arguably one of the worst public health disasters of the last 100 years. As many infectious disease experts were focused on influenza, MERS, ZIKA, or Ebola as potential pandemic-causing agents, SARS-CoV-2 appeared to come from nowhere and spread rapidly. As with any zoonotic agent, the initial pathogen was able to transmit to a new host (humans), but it was poorly adapted to the immune environment of the new host and resulted in a maladapted immune response. As the host-pathogen interaction evolved, subsequent variants of SARS-CoV-2 became less pathogenic and acquired immunity in the host provided protection, at least partial protection, to new variants. As the host-pathogen interaction has changed since the beginning of the pandemic, it is possible the clinical results discussed here may not be applicable today as they were at the start of the pandemic. With this caveat in mind, we present an overview of the immune response of severe COVID-19 from a clinical research perspective and examine clinical trials utilizing immunomodulating agents to further elucidate the importance of hyperinflammation as a factor contributing to severe COVID-19 disease.