US coronavirus study says suppressing body’s initial immune response may help in fight against Covid-19

‘A short regimen of a proper immunosuppressant drug applied early in the disease process may improve a patient’s outcome,’ paper’s co-author says

But immunologist says move would be ‘very dangerous because you’re crippling your body’s ability’ to clear the infection

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Researchers in the US have put forward a “counterintuitive” idea for treating Covid-19. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:10am, 7 May 2020Updated: 12:13pm, 8 May 2020

Researchers in the United States have proposed what they describe as a “counterintuitive” method of treating Covid-19 by temporarily suppressing the body’s immune response in the early stages of infection to prevent more severe symptoms developing later.

After running models to compare Covid-19 with the flu, the researchers found that the progression of the disease caused by the new coronavirus was slower. This and the subsequent immune response may be the reason for more severe symptoms in Covid-19 patients, according to a paper published in the Journal of Medical Virology.

“Based on the results of the mathematical modelling, we proposed a counterintuitive idea that a short regimen of a proper immunosuppressant drug applied early in the disease process may improve a patient’s outcome,” said Sean Du, a researcher from the University of Southern California and co-author of the paper.

“With the right suppressive agent, we may be able to delay the adaptive immune response and prevent it from interfering with the innate immune response, which enables faster elimination of the virus and the infected cells.”

The way in which the human immune system responds to invasive pathogens can be divided into two types: innate and adaptive. The former is non-specific and activated quickly to attack foreign cells in the body as soon as they are detected. The adaptive response starts days later if the bug is still detected and is specific to the particular type of pathogen.