Abstract
In the first year of its appearance, the 2019 coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) has affected more than 120 million individuals and killed 2
million people worldwide. The pandemic has also triggered numerous
global initiatives to tackle the newly emerging disease, including the
development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and the attempt to discover potential
pharmacological therapies. Nonetheless, despite the success of
SARS-CoV-2 vaccines development, the COVID-19 therapy remains
challenging. Several repurposed drugs that were documented to be useful
in small clinical trials have been shown to be ineffective in larger
studies. Additionally, the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection
displayed the predominance of cytokine storm in inducing multiorgan
damage. Therefore, the potential benefits of both immune modulation and
suppression in COVID-19 have been extensively discussed. Here, we
reviewed the roles of immunomodulation as potential COVID-19
pharmacological modalities based on the existing data and proposed
several new immunologic targets to be tested in the foreseeable future.