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Are superantigens the cause of cytokine storm and viral sepsis in severe COVID‐19? Observations and hypothesis
Author(s) -
Scaglioni Valeria,
Soriano Enrique R.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/sji.12944
Subject(s) - cytokine storm , superantigen , sepsis , immunology , cytokine release syndrome , cytokine , immune system , covid-19 , coronavirus , medicine , pathophysiology , pandemic , septic shock , shock (circulatory) , toxic shock syndrome , biology , disease , immunotherapy , t cell , infectious disease (medical specialty) , genetics , staphylococcus aureus , chimeric antigen receptor , bacteria
Right now the world is going through an unprecedented pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus. Recent papers pointed out the fatal outcome in most of the severe cases, in which a cytokine storm has been proven to be the cause of a systemic shock, acute respiratory syndrome, multiorgan failure and consequently death. Several explanations have been proposed trying to explain the pathophysiology of the cytokine storm, but viral proteins with a possible superantigen activity as a cause of immune dysregulation have not been addressed. If this hypothesis is proven, a different treatment approach might change the outcome in severe cases.