Mesenchymal Stem Cells: The Secret Children’s Weapons against the SARS-CoV-2 Lethal Infection

Mario Giosuè Balzanelli,Francesco Inchingolo,Sergey K Aityan,Kieu C D Nguyen,Diego Tomassone,Rita Lazzaro,Pietro Distratis,Ciro Gargiulo Isacco,Angelo Cefalo,Andrea Ballini,Orazio Catucci

doi:10.3390/app11041696

Abstract

Due to the promising effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the treatment of various diseases, this commentary aimed to focus on the auxiliary role of MSCs to reduce inflammatory processes of acute respiratory infections caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Since early in 2020, COVID-19, a consequence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly affected millions of people world-wide. The SARS-CoV-2 infection in children appears to be an unusual event. Despite the high number of affected adult and elderly, children and adolescents remained low in amounts, and marginally touched. Based on the promising role of cell therapy and regenerative medicine approaches in the treatment of several life-threatening diseases, it seems that applying MSCs cell-based approaches can also be a hopeful strategy for improving subjects with severe acute respiratory infections caused by COVID-19.

Highlights

SET-118, Department of Pre-Hospital and Emergency-San Giuseppe Moscati Hospital, 74100 Taranto, Italy; Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, 70124 Bari, Italy; Director of Multidisciplinary Research Center, Lincoln University, Oakland, CA 94612, USA; Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Campus Universitario “E. Quagliariello”, 70125 Bari, Italy
After the antigen exposure to pathogens [4,5,6]. These systemic antigens determine a series of functional changes either transcriptomic or metabolomic within bone marrow and peripheral blood. These changes activate and enhance the expression of haemopoietic progenitors and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), together with Natural Killer (NK) and innate lymphoid cells leading to the formation of a group of immune cells equipped with stronger and faster defensive system against infecAppl
Given the special immunomodulatory property of MSCs, together with their low major histocompatibility class I (MHC-I) expression, MSCs showed to be able to treat in vivo the steroid-resistant graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in patients underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells and solid organ transplantation improving the outcomes of clinical diseases as a consequence of aberrant and destructive immune responses

Summary

Introduction with regard to jurisdictional claims in

The adaptive immunity plays a crucial role in SARS-CoV-2 infection: proinflammatory mediators activate either the type 1 T helper cells (Th1) immune response (CD4+ and CD8+ T cells) or B lymphocytes that trigger the virus-specific immune response [1]. These systemic antigens determine a series of functional changes either transcriptomic or metabolomic within bone marrow and peripheral blood These changes activate and enhance the expression of haemopoietic progenitors and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), together with Natural Killer (NK) and innate lymphoid cells leading to the formation of a group of immune cells equipped with stronger and faster defensive system against infecAppl. Pediatric subjects, the frequent infections potentially damage the inner particular pathogens, such as the cytomegalovirus and flu A virus, starting a mediated mucosa, tissues, and epithelial cells of the lung constantly triggering the surveillance secondary innate immune response as soon as the they re-encounter the same intruder presence of immune cells. Together with a suppressing a suppressing activity on NK cell proliferation and NKproduction cell-mediated cytotoxicity (Figure 1). on NK cell proliferation and NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity [8,9] (Figure 1)

Hypothesis

Present Procedure and Future Perspectives and Limitations

Findings

Conclusions