In a new study, researchers found a cellular therapy tested on 13 intubated patients with mechanical ventilation has been shown to be efficient for the clinical improvement of critical cases of COVID-19.
They proved that advanced treatment decreases mortality rates of critical patients with coronavirus from 85% to 15%.
The research was conducted by a team at the Miguel Hernández University and elsewhere.
This advanced therapy is based on stem cells with regenerative, anti-inflammatory, and immunoregulating properties, and is the first cell therapy for COVID-19 entirely developed and produced in Spain.
During the study, critical coronavirus patients were treated who did not respond to conventional cellular therapy treatment, composed of allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cells, in doses of one million cells per kilo of weight, in one or several doses.
The results of its use in coronavirus patients admitted in ICUs were compared with the clinical evolution and mortality of similar cases.
According to the results, the new cellular therapy does not cause adverse reactions but does entail an overall clinical and radiological improvement.
The mortality rate of patients decreased from 70-85% to 15% (two patients).
A majority of people treated with cellular therapy were extubated during the data collecting period.
Their inflammation (C-reactive protein and ferritin), coagulation (D-dimer), and tissue damage (lactate dehydrogenase) markers decreased. Furthermore, it was verified that the drug did not decrease lymphocyte counts.
In fact, the results show that the new treatment increases the presence of T lymphocytes (which directly attack the virus) and B lymphocytes (which synthesize antibodies).
The researchers explain that cellular therapies, unlike other treatments, are “live drugs” and must be used by qualified medical staff.
Knowledge of the biological scientific foundations of these treatments, as well as of the physiology of the interaction between the drug and the host, are essential for their appropriate handling.
One author of the study is professor Damián García-Olmo.
The study is published in EClinical Medicine.
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