Only one thing is clear about our immune system: it's extremely complex and even after a century of prodding it, we still don't know it well enough to prod it in targeted ways and know what to expect.
Especially, suppressing the immune system is always dicey, since its not just one variable you tune up or down. However, there _is_ a magic bullet of sorts out there, Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG).
IVIG is just concentrated antibodies made from plasma of thousands of donors. Its original use case was to clear out a patients antobodies to suppress any antibody-mediated autoimmune response, but turns out IVIG can have global immunosuppressive effects through other mechanisms as well. Importantly, it's very "benign" - almost no known side effects, and your general immunity is still left intact. This has led to extensive use of this drug off-label for anything dealing with excessive immune responses.
The more and more I think and look, the more I'm convinced IVIG might help worsening covid patients. Indeed, a case study from China suggests it can be beneficial (3 of 3 very sick patients fully recovered) but of course a proper study is needed (IVIG is quite possibly the worst drug to try and ramp up production). On the other side, a pre-covid trial of IVIG on ARDS patients (already on EMCO) showed no effect, though I personally felt the study was too broad. More studies are also needed, because I'm sure any _new_ IVIG made, since it pools thousands of patients' plasma, is bound to have anti-covid antibodies as well, and this could have some potentially dangerous effects as well (Antibody-Dependent Enhancement). But I'm still cautiously optimistic and am hoping to write to some experts after gathering more data to see what they think.
Especially, suppressing the immune system is always dicey, since its not just one variable you tune up or down. However, there _is_ a magic bullet of sorts out there, Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG).
IVIG is just concentrated antibodies made from plasma of thousands of donors. Its original use case was to clear out a patients antobodies to suppress any antibody-mediated autoimmune response, but turns out IVIG can have global immunosuppressive effects through other mechanisms as well. Importantly, it's very "benign" - almost no known side effects, and your general immunity is still left intact. This has led to extensive use of this drug off-label for anything dealing with excessive immune responses.
The more and more I think and look, the more I'm convinced IVIG might help worsening covid patients. Indeed, a case study from China suggests it can be beneficial (3 of 3 very sick patients fully recovered) but of course a proper study is needed (IVIG is quite possibly the worst drug to try and ramp up production). On the other side, a pre-covid trial of IVIG on ARDS patients (already on EMCO) showed no effect, though I personally felt the study was too broad. More studies are also needed, because I'm sure any _new_ IVIG made, since it pools thousands of patients' plasma, is bound to have anti-covid antibodies as well, and this could have some potentially dangerous effects as well (Antibody-Dependent Enhancement). But I'm still cautiously optimistic and am hoping to write to some experts after gathering more data to see what they think.