Infection and Drug Resistance (Oct 2021)
The Influence of Helminth Immune Regulation on COVID-19 Clinical Outcomes: Is it Beneficial or Detrimental?
Abstract
Muluneh Ademe,1 Friehiwot Girma2 1Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 2Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Nursing, School of Health Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Muluneh Ademe P.O. Box: 9086, Addis Ababa, EthiopiaTel +251 912 63 4868Fax +251 1 551 30 99Email [email protected]: Immunologically, chronic worm infections prevent themselves from strong immune responses by skewing the host response towards a T helper 2 (Th2) type. The regulatory response initiated by helminth infections is supposed to temper responses to non-helminth antigens including viral infections which will, in turn, alter the clinical outcomes of infections. In view of this, recent reports highlighted the possible negative associations of severe COVID-19 and helminth co-infections in helminth-endemic regions. As the pathology of COVID-19 is primarily mediated by an excessive immune response and subsequent cytokine storm, which contributes to the poor prognosis of COVID-19, helminth-driven immune modulation will hypothetically contribute to the less severe outcomes of COVID-19. Nevertheless, emerging reports also stated that COVID-19 and helminth co-infections may have more hidden outcomes than predictable ones. Herein, the current knowledge on the interaction of COVID-19 and helminth co-infections will be discussed.Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, worm co-infections, cytokine storm, Th2 response
