Bracing NK cell based therapy to relegate pulmonary inflammation in COVID-19

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Volume Title

A2 Katsausartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2021-07

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Mcode

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Language

en

Pages

9

Series

Heliyon, Volume 7, issue 7

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.

Description

Funding Information: We thank Dr. Prajwal GS, Junior Resident of Orthopedics, JJM Medical College, Davangere, Karnataka, India for the literature search regarding COVID-19. Publisher Copyright: © 2021

Keywords

COVID-19, Cytokines, Natural killer cells, Pulmonary inflammation, SARS-CoV-2

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Citation

Jeyaraman, M, Muthu, S, Bapat, A, Jain, R, Sushmitha, E S, Gulati, A, Channaiah Anudeep, T, Dilip, S J, Jha, N K, Kumar, D, Kesari, K K, Ojha, S, Dholpuria, S, Gupta, G, Dureja, H, Chellappan, D K, Singh, S K, Dua, K & Jha, S K 2021, ' Bracing NK cell based therapy to relegate pulmonary inflammation in COVID-19 ', Heliyon, vol. 7, no. 7, 07635 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07635