Chapter 26 - Immunotherapy as an emerging and promising tool against viral infections

ABSTRACT

Immunotherapies, as a strategy for disease management, manipulate or object to the ingredients of the immune system. Viral infections illustrate a significant threat to human health that was proven via documents in many countries. Nowadays, several immunotherapeutic approaches, as an alternative therapy, are increasingly investigated to treat infectious diseases that caused intense advances toward discovering pathogen-host immunity interactions. Novel therapeutic approaches certainly are essential to eliminate the challenges confronted by existing viral infection diseases’ prevention and treatment methods (lack of adequate efficacy, drug side-effect, and the apparition of drug resistance). As proven by evidences in the latest developments of pharmaceuticals, such as vaccines and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), immunotherapy strategies display plentiful promise to manage the limitation. In this chapter, we explain some of the unique existing approaches to prevent and treat viral infectious disease via immunotherapies such as mAb-based therapies, vaccines, T-cell-based therapies, utilizing cytokine levels, and checkpoint inhibition as well as defensins. At the same time, its general performance has been displayed in cancer and many viral disease treatments [human immunodeficiency virus, malaria, tuberculosis, Zika virus, and coronavirus disease (COVID-19)]. Finally, immunotherapeutics’ unique features, cost, and safety will be affected by its general administration.