Immunological Interventions for the Management of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has recently created huge global health concerns and because of significant morbidity, socio-economic impact, and death in immune-compromised and elderly patients, WHO announced COVID-19 as a global public health emergency. The COVID-19 is caused by a newly-emerged novel coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) The virus belongs to the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, family Coronaviridae, and genus Betacoronavirus. The CoVs are enveloped, positive-sense and single-stranded RNA viruses. The CoVs are reported to cause respiratory, nervous, and enteric diseases. The virus has reportedly originated from Wuhan, China in December, 2019 and rapidly spread to more than 215 countries with above 600.45 million confirmed cases and nearly 6.5 million deaths as on August, 2022. Various possible efforts were made to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic by early diagnosis and prompt clinical care of affected individuals, along with adequate prevention and control measures. Many treatment options, including antivirals, protease inhibitors, and immunotherapeutics (neutralizing/monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma), and other therapeutics (antimalarial and antiparasitic drugs) were attempted with largely partial success. Hence, only prevention strategies to avoid virus infection and further transmission and spread may be considered. This reflects an urgent need for combined cooperation and collaborative efforts of common people, health workers, and research wings in a coordinated manner on regional, national, and international platforms.