The theme of this special issue of Fundamental Research is immune defenses against coronavirus disease (COVID-19). COVID-19 leads to severe acute respiratory syndrome. Since its outbreak, China has mobilized resources across the country and successfully controlled the pandemic. To date, COVID-19 has caused more than 2 million deaths worldwide, and the pandemic situation continues to be severe. China is cooperating with other countries for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. In this combat, efforts to understand the crosstalk between the virus and the human immune system as well as to seek suitable vaccines and treatment strategies are under way.
The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) is the largest source of funding supporting basic research related to COVID-19. Promptly after the COVID-19 outbreak, the NSFC launched a special fund for basic research on the intermediate host, virology, pathogenesis, and potential treatments of COVID-19. To promote cooperation between scientists in China and other countries, the NSFC opened calls for joint proposals in COVID-19. Recently, the NSFC initiated the Major Research Plan— Coronavirus-Host Dynamic Immunological Interactions and Intervention Strategies—to fund research on the landscape of dynamic interaction between the causative coronavirus and the host immune system. Application of novel multiscale, multidimensional, and multidisciplinary paradigms are encouraged to identify the key molecules and dynamic regulatory networks involved in coronavirus–host interaction; elucidate the mechanisms underlying the balance between immune protection and immune damage and their clinical manifestations; and develop new therapeutic strategies for prophylactic vaccine design, immune damage prevention, and viral life cycle inhibition. This Major Research Plan will continue for 8 years and fund several types of programs, including the Fostering Program, Key Program, and Integrated Program, with the aim of preventing the spread of COVID-19, curing the patients, providing new theories and innovative technologies against future infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics, and enhancing our national competitive and innovative capabilities in vaccine and drug development.
This special issue contains six review articles, two original research articles, two short perspectives, and one case report, focusing on clinical and basic research on COVID-19. The topics include immune profiles of COVID-19 patients, vaccine development, new therapeutic strategies for COVID-19, virology of COVID-19, drug discovery, and modeling and predicting disease progression. The authors of these papers are top scientists at the forefront of their research fields in China. This special issue will provide a venue for communicating recent progress in immune defenses against COVID-19 and highlighting the key questions and challenges for future research.
Biography
Professor Zhigang Tian is an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He works at University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, China, where he also serves as the Director of the Institute of Immunology, Director of the Key Laboratory of Innate Immunity and Chronic Disease of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and President of the Medical Center. Furthermore, he is the former Dean of School of Life Sciences, USTC. Tian's laboratory has made seminal discoveries regarding basic knowledge and clinical study of natural killer (NK) cells, particularly liver-resident NK cells, cytokine-producing NK cell subsets, and NK cell-based immunotherapy. He has published more than 300 papers as the corresponding author in peer-reviewed journals including Science, Cell, Nat Immunol, Immunity, Cell Metabl, Sci Transl Med, J Exp Med, J Clin Invest, Nat Commun, and PNAS. He is a former President of the Chinese Society of Immunology and current Council Member of the International Union of Immunological Societies and Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania, a co-Editor-in-Chief of Cell Mol Immunol (CSI official journal), and editorial board member of up to 10 journals including Hepatology, J Autoimmune, Int J Cancer, Eu J Immunol, and J Biol Chem.