J Allergy Clin Immunol. COVID-19: unanswered questions on immune response and pathogenesis

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J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2020 May 7. pii: S0091-6749(20)30631-X. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2020.05.001. [Epub ahead of print]
COVID-19: unanswered questions on immune response and pathogenesis.


Maggi E¹, Canonica GW², Moretta L³.

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Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly increased in pandemic scale since it first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. In these troubled days the scientific community is asking rapid replies to prevent and combat the emergency. It is generally accepted that only achieving a better understanding of the interactions between the virus and host immune response and of the pathogenesis of infection is crucial to identify valid therapeutic tools to control virus entry, replication and spread as well as to impair its lethal effects. Based on the recent research progress of SARS-CoV-2 and the results on previous coronaviruses, in this contribution we underscore some of the main unsolved problems, mostly focusing on pathogenetic aspects and host immunity to the virus. On this basis, we also touch important aspects regarding the immune response in asymptomatic subjects, the immune-evasion of SARS-CoV-2 in severe patients and differences in disease severity by age and gender.
Copyright ? 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.



KEYWORDS:

Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immunity; COVID-19 Pathogenesis; Viral Immune Evasion


PMID:32389590DOI:10.1016/j.jaci.2020.05.001
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