Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic and Our Strategies

With the declaration the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of the United States, pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has officially ended on May 11, 2023. What we learn from the deadly pandemic and are we ready for the next crisis are important questions that need to be answered. To this effort, this review provides an update and summarizes the recent advances in the treatment of the COVID-19 and in particular emphasized the strategies in managing cytokine release syndrome (CRS) triggered by SARS-CoV-2. These strategies may provide examples when we face the threat of the next pandemic.

The strategies for developing novel treatments against COVID-19 include antiviral small molecule drugs, cell & gene therapies, immunomodulators, neutralizing antibodies, and combination therapies. Among them, immunomodulators are the most studied treatments. The small molecule antiviral drugs and immunoregulators are expected to be effective against viral variants of SARS-CoV-2 as these drugs target either conservative parts of the virus or common pathways of inflammation. Although the immunoregulators have shown benefits in reducing mortality of CRS triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infections, extensive investigations on this class of treatment to launch novel therapies that substantially improve efficacy and reduce side effects are still warranted. Moreover, great challenges have emerged as the SARS-CoV-2 virus quickly, frequently, and continuously evolved.