Non-antibiotic Treatments for Pneumonia: Host-Directed Therapies, Next-Steps and Future Directions
Jezreel Pantaleón García1, Cecilia J Chung2, Robert C Flowers2
1Division of Internal Medicine, Department of Pulmonary Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
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Pneumonia is one of the deadliest and most common infections worldwide. Traditional management has focused on pathogen-directed therapy with antimicrobial drugs. However, continued increase of antimicrobial resistance represents a growing health care crisis and heightens the urgency of shifting the treatment focus outside of the traditional paradigm. Adjunctive and host-directed therapies (HDT) target the response to infection by either enhancing the host immune response or mitigating immunopathology. They encompass a broad range of treatments, repurposed medications, and interventions that alter how the host responds to infections. This review summarizes adjunctive and HDTs for bacterial, tuberculous, fungal, and viral pneumonia.
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