Elucidating the Immune Responses to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection: Drivers of Recovery and Discovery

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is one of the three novel betacoronaviruses (SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2) which have demonstrated significant outbreaks and high case-fatality rates in humans in the last two decades. Although the systemic landscape of the immune responses to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) keeps emerging, reports continue to show that dysregulated immune response is an important driver of COVID-19 pathogenesis as pathological disparities (mild vs severe vs critical) usually result from differences in the immune response to the virus. It is therefore apparent that the importance of an in-depth knowledge of immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in deciphering the protective and detrimental components of the immune response and giving insights into the immunological goldmines that are essential for immunotherapeutic purposes, cannot be over-emphasized and is thus, succinctly discussed in this review.