Convalescent plasma for coronavirus disease 2019: A boon or bane

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic emergence has re-evaluated the functionality of the notable convalescent plasma transfusion (CPT). It is a source of neutralising antibodies, which when transfused into severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infected patients are believed to employ an antiviral effect, suppressing the replication of virus before the patients regain their own effective humoral immune responses. The major accepted mode of action of the CPT therapy is viremia clearance, that happens mostly between 10 and 14 days after infection. Hence, CPT has been administered to the recipients typically after the emergence of early symptoms for anticipating maximize the efficacy of the therapy. CPT has been used in treating viral diseases including measles, mumps, poliomyelitis, and influenza in the pre-vaccine era. More recently, it has been used as a treatment approach for influenza, Ebola virus disease, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus epidemics, with varying success. The available evidence till date suggests that convalescent plasma which is collected from the COVID 19 survivors contains “receptor binding domain specific antibodies” possessing potent antiviral activity. Multicentred and well-designed clinical trial studies in establishing the efficacy of CPT among COVID-19 patients are being conducted globally. PubMed, EMBASE, and Medline databases were screened till November 01, 2020. This is an attempt to review studies of convalescent plasma on clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. From the outcomes of some of the completed studies, it is suggested that CPT therapy among COVID-19 patients seems to be safe and clinically efficacious to some extent.