Orlando [US], May 10 : A researcher at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine has created a novel, more accurate therapy for a leading source of sickness worldwide each year - acute respiratory virus infections.
Flu, pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and coronavirus are all examples of acute respiratory viral diseases. According to the World Health Orgsation, these viruses cause millions of illnesses globally, with the flu alone responsible for 3 million to 5 million instances of severe sickness and up to 650,000 respiratory deaths each year.
"Interventions that can improve the outcome of serious viral infection without interfering with effective anti-viral immune responses are urgently needed," says Tara Strutt, an assistant professor in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences within UCF's College of Medicine, who developed the treatment.
As a cellular immunologist, Strutt knows very well what cytokines part of the body's defense against pathogens can do.
"Cytokines can do good things, and they can do bad things," she said. "For example, during severe infections, an overactive immune response can trigger a cytokine storm, a condition in which excess cytokine production leads to uncontrolled inflammation. This hyperinflammation can ultimately cause tissue damage and organ failure."
The cytokine Strutt is using, interleukin-2 (IL-2), is currently approved for cancer immunotherapy. One of the challenges of IL-2-based therapy, though, is the numerous off-target effects that can result in organ and tissue damage, Strutt said.
To overcome this, Strutt's immunotherapy treatment uses IL-2 combined with a monoclonal antibody specific for IL-2 to form an IL-2 antibody complex, or targeted IL-2. The targeted IL-2 can induce both anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory responses. By modulating inflammatory response, further complications such as cytokine storms can be avoided and clinical outcomes can be improved.
In mal studies done in the Strutt laboratory, improved outcomes including improved respiratory function and reduced airway inflammation were seen when targeted IL-2 was administered during influenza virus infection. Targeted IL-2 was shown to promote an antiviral inflammatory response during viral infection and reduced, virtually absent, bronchial inflammation.
Additionally, the use of the targeted IL-2 was shown to have a beneficial role in forming memory CD4 T-cells. These CD4 T-cells protect against pathogens previously encountered by infection or vaccination. This application has the potential to improve the immune responses stimulated by vaccines, Strutt said.
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