The advent of COVID-19 and the persistent threat of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, influenza and HIV/AIDS remind us of the marked impact that infections continue to have on public health. Some of the most effective protective measures are vaccines but these have been difficult to develop for some of these infectious diseases even after decades of research. The development of drugs and immunotherapies acting directly against the pathogen can be equally challenging, and such pathogen-directed therapeutics have the potential disadvantage of selecting for resistance. An alternative approach is provided by host-directed therapies, which interfere with host cellular processes required for pathogen survival or replication, or target the host immune response to infection (immunotherapies) to either augment immunity or ameliorate immunopathology. Here, we provide a historical perspective of host-directed immunotherapeutic interventions for viral and bacterial infections and then focus on SARS-CoV-2 and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, two major human pathogens of the current era, to indicate the key lessons learned and discuss candidate immunotherapeutic approaches, with a focus on drugs currently in clinical trials.

COVID-19 的出现以及结核病、疟疾、流感和艾滋病毒/艾滋病等传染病的持续威胁提醒我们，感染继续对公共卫生产生显着影响。一些最有效的保护措施是疫苗，但即使经过数十年的研究，针对其中一些传染病的疫苗仍然很难开发出来。直接针对病原体的药物和免疫疗法的开发同样具有挑战性，并且这种针对病原体的疗法具有选择耐药性的潜在缺点。另一种方法是针对宿主的疗法，它干扰病原体生存或复制所需的宿主细胞过程，或针对宿主对感染的免疫反应（免疫疗法），以增强免疫力或改善免疫病理学。在这里，我们提供了针对病毒和细菌感染的宿主定向免疫治疗干预措施的历史视角，然后重点关注当今时代的两种主要人类病原体 SARS-CoV-2 和结核分枝杆菌，以指出吸取的关键经验教训并讨论候选免疫治疗方法方法，重点关注目前正在进行临床试验的药物。