Fig. 3
Adapted from Grant RA, et al. Circuits between infected macrophages and T cells in SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. Nature. 2021;590(7847);635–641. IL, interleukin; IFNγ, interferon-gamma; ROS, reactive oxygen species
Proximal Role of CRAC Channel-mediated IFN-γ in COVID-19 Pneumonia. Tissue resident alveolar macrophages respond to SARS-CoV-2 infection in the lung by producing T-cell chemoattractants. Arriving T cells produce IFNγ, leading to further alveolar macrophage activation and recruitment of monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages [15, 16]. The feedback loop leads to a rapid increase in proinflammatory cytokines, diffuse alveolar injury, severe endothelialitis, ARDS, and multiorgan dysfunction and failure [14, 17, 18]. Auxora abrogates the release of multiple proinflammatory cytokines from human lymphocytes, including IL-6, IL-17, and IFNγ that are implicated in COVID-19 alveolitis [16, 27].