Novel treatment combining antiviral and neutralizing antibody-based therapies with monitoring of spike-specific antibody and viral load for immunocompromised patients with persistent COVID-19 infection.

ABSTRACT

Because prolonged viral replication of SARS-CoV-2 is increasingly being recognized among immunocompromised patients, subacute or chronic COVID-19 pneumonia can cause persistent lung damage and may lead to viral escape phenomena. Highly efficacious antiviral therapies in immunosuppressed hosts with COVID-19 are urgently needed. From February 2022, we introduced novel treatment combining antiviral therapies and neutralizing antibodies with frequent monitoring of spike-specific antibody and RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values as indicators of viral load for immunocompromised patients with persistent COVID-19 infection. We applied this treatment to 10 immunosuppressed patients with COVID-19, and all completed treatment without relapse of infection. This may be a potentially successful treatment strategy that enables us to sustain viral clearance, determine optimal timing to stop treatment, and prevent virus reactivation in immunocompromised patients with persistent COVID-19.