Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Immunoregulation with mTOR Inhibitors to Prevent COVID-19 Severity: A Novel Intervention Strategy beyond Vaccines and Specific Antiviral Medicines
Version 1
: Received: 2 April 2020 / Approved: 6 April 2020 / Online: 6 April 2020 (14:03:00 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Abstract
COVID-19 has become a severe global public health concern. The critical illness has a mortality rate of 61.5%, and thus, reducing the severity and mortality is top priority. Currently, inflammatory storms are considered as the cause of critical illness and death due to COVID-19. However, After systematical review of the literature, we proposed that cross-reactive antibodies-associated antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) may actually be the cause of cytokine storms. If the activation of memory B cells can be selectively inhibited in high-risk patients at an early stage of COVID-19 to reduce the production of cross-reactive antibodies of the virus, we speculate that the ADE can be avoided and severe symptoms can be prevented. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors satisfy such conditions. We recommend that pharmaceutical companies conduct clinical trials urgently.
Keywords
COVID-19; coronavirus; cytokine storm; immunity; ADE; cross-reactive antibody; rapamycin; mTOR inhibotors
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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