A Novel Potential Therapeutic Tool to Increase Efficiency of Available COV-19 Vaccines

Abstract

A side from the activation of the immune cells and the noticed increase of cytokine levels in COVID-19 patients who have cytokine storm, it has been proved that they have multiple clinical and laboratory irregularities as renal dysfunction and CRP, in addition hyper-inflammation and tissue damage that found to predict worse effects of COVID-19. Over production of cytokines during SARS-CoV-2 can result in damage of lung tissues, ARDS and death. Many studies recently reported that severity of the disease was significantly lower in the vaccinated individuals who get infected with COVID-19 compared to nonvaccinated ones. There are contradictory data with regard to the immunological effect of COVID-19 vaccines. No evidence of raised cytokines levels was shown in vaccinated people with Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. On the other hand, Covaxin increases plasma levels of some cytokines like IFNγ, IL-2, TNFα, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13 and others but reduced levels of other cytokines as IL-25, IL-33 and GM-CSF. Pfizer reduced the production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNF-α and IL-1β. The current review highlights updates on the immunological aspects of COVID-19 and its vaccines. After elaborating advanced research studies, cytokine inhibitors and JAK inhibitors could be used in adjunct with available vaccines or as promising therapeutic target for severe cases of COVID-19.