tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Heliyon
. 2021 Jul 21;e07635.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07635. Online ahead of print.
Bracing NK cell based therapy to relegate pulmonary inflammation in COVID-19
Madhan Jeyaraman[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Sathish Muthu[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Asawari Bapat[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Rashmi Jain[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Sushmitha Es[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Arun Gulati[SUP] 6 [/SUP], Talagavadi Channaiah Anudeep[SUP] 7 [/SUP], Shirodkar Jaswandi Dilip[SUP] 8 [/SUP], Niraj Kumar Jha[SUP] 9 [/SUP], Dhruv Kumar[SUP] 10 [/SUP], Kavindra Kumar Kesari[SUP] 11 [/SUP], Shreesh Ojha[SUP] 12 [/SUP], Sunny Dholpuria[SUP] 13 [/SUP], Gaurav Gupta[SUP] 14 [/SUP], Harish Dureja[SUP] 15 [/SUP], Dinesh Kumar Chellappan[SUP] 16 [/SUP], Sachin Kumar Singh[SUP] 17 [/SUP], Kamal Dua[SUP] 18 19 20 [/SUP], Saurabh Kumar Jha[SUP] 9 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The contagiosity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) has startled mankind and has brought our lives to a standstill. The treatment focused mainly on repurposed immunomodulatory and antiviral agents along with the availability of a few vaccines for prophylaxis to vanquish COVID-19. This seemingly mandates a deeper understanding of the disease pathogenesis. This necessitates a plausible extrapolation of cell-based therapy to COVID-19 and is regarded equivalently significant. Recently, correlative pieces of clinical evidence reported a robust decline in lymphocyte count in severe COVID-19 patients that suggest dysregulated immune responses as a key element contributing to the pathophysiological alterations. The large granular lymphocytes also known as natural killer (NK) cells play a heterogeneous role in biological functioning wherein their frontline action defends the body against a wide array of infections and tumors. They prominently play a critical role in viral clearance and executing immuno-modulatory activities. Accumulated clinical evidence demonstrate a decrease in the number of NK cells in circulation with or without phenotypical exhaustion. These plausibly contribute to the progression of pulmonary inflammation in COVID-19 pneumonia and result in acute lung injury. In this review, we have outlined the present understanding of the immunological response of NK cells in COVID-19 infection. We have also discussed the possible use of these powerful biological cells as a therapeutic agent in view of preventing immunological harms of SARS-CoV-2 and the current challenges in advocating NK cell therapy for the same.
Keywords: COVID-19; Cytokines; Natural killer cells; Pulmonary inflammation; SARS-CoV-2.
. 2021 Jul 21;e07635.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07635. Online ahead of print.
Bracing NK cell based therapy to relegate pulmonary inflammation in COVID-19
Madhan Jeyaraman[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Sathish Muthu[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Asawari Bapat[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Rashmi Jain[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Sushmitha Es[SUP] 5 [/SUP], Arun Gulati[SUP] 6 [/SUP], Talagavadi Channaiah Anudeep[SUP] 7 [/SUP], Shirodkar Jaswandi Dilip[SUP] 8 [/SUP], Niraj Kumar Jha[SUP] 9 [/SUP], Dhruv Kumar[SUP] 10 [/SUP], Kavindra Kumar Kesari[SUP] 11 [/SUP], Shreesh Ojha[SUP] 12 [/SUP], Sunny Dholpuria[SUP] 13 [/SUP], Gaurav Gupta[SUP] 14 [/SUP], Harish Dureja[SUP] 15 [/SUP], Dinesh Kumar Chellappan[SUP] 16 [/SUP], Sachin Kumar Singh[SUP] 17 [/SUP], Kamal Dua[SUP] 18 19 20 [/SUP], Saurabh Kumar Jha[SUP] 9 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 34312598
- PMCID: PMC8294777
- DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07635
Abstract
The contagiosity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) has startled mankind and has brought our lives to a standstill. The treatment focused mainly on repurposed immunomodulatory and antiviral agents along with the availability of a few vaccines for prophylaxis to vanquish COVID-19. This seemingly mandates a deeper understanding of the disease pathogenesis. This necessitates a plausible extrapolation of cell-based therapy to COVID-19 and is regarded equivalently significant. Recently, correlative pieces of clinical evidence reported a robust decline in lymphocyte count in severe COVID-19 patients that suggest dysregulated immune responses as a key element contributing to the pathophysiological alterations. The large granular lymphocytes also known as natural killer (NK) cells play a heterogeneous role in biological functioning wherein their frontline action defends the body against a wide array of infections and tumors. They prominently play a critical role in viral clearance and executing immuno-modulatory activities. Accumulated clinical evidence demonstrate a decrease in the number of NK cells in circulation with or without phenotypical exhaustion. These plausibly contribute to the progression of pulmonary inflammation in COVID-19 pneumonia and result in acute lung injury. In this review, we have outlined the present understanding of the immunological response of NK cells in COVID-19 infection. We have also discussed the possible use of these powerful biological cells as a therapeutic agent in view of preventing immunological harms of SARS-CoV-2 and the current challenges in advocating NK cell therapy for the same.
Keywords: COVID-19; Cytokines; Natural killer cells; Pulmonary inflammation; SARS-CoV-2.