Purpose of review: The limitations of pathogen-directed therapies include growing antimicrobial resistance or the complete lack of any effective antimicrobial agents. This review highlights the potential for host-directed immunotherapies.
Recent findings: This review provides a current status of host-directed immunotherapies to fight infectious diseases (HIFI), defining the concept and existing modalities. Drawing on large-scale viral studies - most of which are historical with limited recent research - the review highlights key lessons for its future clinical application.
Summary: HIFI represents a paradigm shift in infectious disease management, moving beyond pathogen-targeting to harnessing and modulating host immunity. This approach requires better mechanistic and pharmacologic understanding of existing modalities, development of newer agents based on tractable immunobiology, and robust clinical studies.
Keywords: augment immunity; host-directed therapy; immunotherapy; infections; virus.
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