- Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have proven that a revolutionary idea of coronavirus treatment actually works.
- Stem cell transfusions can save lives and accelerate the recovery of COVID-19 in patients with severe life-threatening ARDS.
- Stem cells migrate to the lungs and can correct the immune and inflammatory response, reducing so-called cytokine storms. “It’s like a technology with smart bombs in the lungs to restore the normal immune response and reverse the life-threatening complications,” Dr. Camillo Ricordi said in a statement.
As terrible as 2020 was, with COVID-19 largely responsible for the whole tone of last year, there is one key thing that is not getting enough praise. This is the science that has allowed health officials and physicians to develop protocols to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and save more patients who end up developing life-threatening complications. A large number of discoveries have allowed doctors to change the way they treat patients.
The introduction of blood thinners in COVID-19 therapy and drugs that can temper the inflammatory response has allowed many people to survive the battle with the terrible disease. New drugs, such as monoclonal antibodies, can prevent severe cases, and vaccines have been shown to be very effective in clinical trials to prevent complications of COVID-19. But SARS-CoV-2 is so infectious that the number of deaths remains high. The higher the number of cases, the more deaths can be expected, even if the actual mortality rate is quite low. That is why the US has suffered so many deaths in recent months, and more people will not survive COVID-19 in the coming months.
Vaccines are a kind of miracle cure that can prevent deaths, teaching the immune system to be prepared to deal with the virus from the moment it sets foot in the body. But vaccines cannot be used in people who are already infected with the pathogen. There the world will need better therapies. A team of doctors has just found an innovative treatment that could save even more lives than is possible now. Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have proven a theory based on anecdotal evidence. Stem cell therapy can speed up COVID-19 recovery and prevent death.
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Some doctors have tried transfusing stem cells into COVID-19 therapy in different countries, with American doctors proving very successful. But these were not studies that would allow the country to create new treatment protocols. New drugs, such as vaccines, must go through randomized, double-blind studies, which undoubtedly prove to be effective and safe.
That’s what the UM team did with infusions of mesenchymal stem cells derived from the umbilical cord. Doctors studied 24 COVID-19 patients admitted to UHealth Tower or UM / Jackson Memorial Hospital. Patients have developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which occurs in other diseases and can be fatal. Patients received two infusions a few days apart, either with a placebo or with stem cells.
“It was a double-blind study. Doctors and patients did not know what was being infused, “said Dr. Camillo Ricordi in a statement. Two infusions of 100 million stem cells were delivered within three days, for a total of 200 million cells in each subject in the treatment group.
Ricordi, lead author of the study published in Translational stem cell medicine, is the director of the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) and the Center for Cell Transplantation at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
The researchers found that patient survival was 91% in the stem cell group, compared with 42% in the placebo group. All patients under the age of 85 who received stem cells survived for one month.
Patients with stem cells recovered faster than those in the control group. More than half of the patients treated with stem cells went home within two weeks of the last treatment. More than 80% of the stem group recovered by day 30, compared with less than 37% in the placebo cohort.
The umbilical cord contains progenitor stem cells, or mesenchymal stem cells, that can be expanded and provide therapeutic doses to more than 10,000 patients in a single umbilical cord, Ricordi said. It is a unique resource of cells that are being investigated for their possible use in cell therapy applications, whenever you need to modulate the immune response or inflammatory response.
The doctor said the university has been working with China for more than 10 years on these therapies, analyzing stem cells to treat type 1 diabetes. Stem cell-based therapies could be used in other diseases that cause an exaggerated immune response, not just COVID. -19.
“Our results confirm the strong anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory effect of UC-MSC (umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells). These cells clearly inhibited the “cytokine storm,” a hallmark of severe COVID-19, “said Dr. Giacomo Lanzoni, lead author, in a statement.
Stem cells have antimicrobial activity and lead to tissue regeneration, in addition to correcting the immune and inflammatory response.
The therapy “requires only an intravenous (IV) infusion, like a blood transfusion,” according to Ricordi. “It’s like a smart bomb technology in the lungs to restore the normal immune response and reverse the life-threatening complications.” Stem cells have been found to occur naturally in the lungs, which is the most compromised area in patients with COVID-19 who develop ARDS.
The university intends to study stem cell therapy in patients with COVID-19 who have not developed complications but are at risk of being intubated. If successful, therapy may prevent COVID-19 from progressing to a severe condition in which complications occur.
While Ricordi and his team have shown that stem cell therapy is safe and effective for patients with COVID-19, it is unclear if and when it can be used on a larger scale. The US is still facing a record number of hospitalizations, and patients who develop complications will need weeks to recover. Other countries are also facing massive increases in COVID-19.
Chris Smith began writing about gadgets as a hobby, and before he knew it, he was sharing his views on technical stuff with readers around the world. Whenever he doesn’t write about gadgets, he can’t stay away from them, even though he tries desperately. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.