Sumedha Guha, Techno India University
A ground-breaking randomized trial at the University Of Miami Miller School Of Medicine has given us a new treatment for SARS-CoV-2 patients. In the trial that was led by Dr. Camillo Ricordi, M.D., mesenchymal stem cells of the umbilical cord were infused into the body of patients severely affected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. According to study results published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine in January 2021, the patient survival rate was 91% in the first month of stem cell treatment- it was 42% in the control group. For patients above 85 years, 100% of those treated with mesenchymal cells survived at one month. Also, more than 80% of the treatment group recovered by the first month as opposed to 37% in the control group.
Mesenchymal cells, essentially stem cells found in the bone marrow, not only help correct immune and inflammatory responses but also have antimicrobial activity. The anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory nature of mesenchymal cells has been a perfect antidote to inhibit the ‘cytokine storm’, a hallmark of severe COVID-19. When injected intravenously, the stem cells migrate naturally to the lungs, just where the therapy is needed for severely affected patients. It can then proceed to restore normal immune response by reversing severe inflammation and other life-threatening complications like fluid build-up in the lungs.
“The results are critically important not only for COVID-19 but also for other diseases characterized by aberrant and hyperinflammatory immune responses, such as autoimmune Type 1 Diabetes,” says Giacomo Lanzoni, Ph.D., lead author of the paper and assistant research professor at the Diabetes Research Institute and Cell Transplant Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
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