The second phase of clinical trials showed that therapy by the method of administering mesenchymal stem cells improves the condition and exodus of the disease in patients with coronavirus infection. The effectiveness of treatment is estimated in the article by the international team of researchers published in the Cell Research magazine.
In February 2020, scientists noticed that the introduction of mesenchymal stem cells of seven patients weakened the symptoms of infection and reduced the recovery time. In the second one-sidedly blind randomized placebo-controlled phase of clinical trials, 58 patients took part. In 21 of them COVID-19 was hard, six were critically sick. All participants were divided into two equal groups of 29 people: one received stem cells, and the other placebo is saline.
The introduction of stem cells quickly and significantly improved the forecast for severely ill and patients in a critical condition, and also facilitated the symptoms of COVID-19. Visualization of the chest organs showed significant improvements in such patients compared to the placebo group. In addition, therapy reduced the time of staying patients in the hospital – 11 days compared with 15 in the control group. There were no deaths in the experimental group (in the placebo group almost seven percent died) and all its participants were discharged without observed side effects.
scientists found out that treatment with mesenchymal stem cells lowered the levels of characteristic markers of coronavirus infection – c-reactive protein and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Sequencing RNA single patient cells showed that stem cells effectively modulate many human immune response mechanisms. With such therapy in patients, neutralizing COVID-19 antibodies remained longer. Due to the decrease in the plasma of neutrophil extracellular traps among patients, the number of cases of thrombosis has decreased.