Use Of Convalescent Plasma Therapy Research Articles

Use of convalescent plasma therapy in eight individuals with mild COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still a global epidemic. Several studies of individuals with severe COVID-19 regard convalescent plasma (CP) transfusion as an effective therapy. However, no significant improvements are found in randomized clinical trials of CP treatment. Until now, data for individuals with mild COVID-19 transfused CP were lacking. This study recruited eight individuals with mild COVID-19 who received at least one dose of CP transfusion. After CP therapy, the clinical symptoms of all individuals improved. Lymphocyte counts tended to increase, and lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase and aspartate aminotransferase tended to decrease. However, C-reactive protein increased transiently in three individuals. The median time for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) nucleic acid test to become negative was 2.5 days after CP transfusion. The study shows the potential benefits of CP. Meanwhile, CP probably enhances the inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 temporarily in people with insufficient antiviral immunity. However, the effects of CP are not permanent.

Controlled trials needed to prove efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma therapy in coronavirus disease 2019

Controlled trials needed to prove efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma therapy in coronavirus disease 2019

A Detailed Essay on the Pandemic COVID-19

The name “coronavirus” comes from the crown-like projections on their surfaces. “Corona” in Latinmeans “halo” or “crown”. Coronavirus is causing an outbreak that was first identified in Wuhan City,Hubei Province, China. Since then, the virus has spread to nearly every country, leading the World HealthOrganization (WHO) to declare this as a pandemic. According to WHO, common signs include fever, cough,and respiratory difficulties. Serious cases can lead to pneumonia, kidney failure, and even death. Researchersbelieve that the viruses transmit via fluids in the respiratory system. Centre for Diseaase control andPrevention(CDC) recommends that all people wear masks in public places where it is difficult to maintaina 6-foot (2-meter) distance from others. Social distancing is advised as currently there are no drugs orother therapeutics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration(FDA) to prevent or treat COVID-19.Current clinical management includes infection prevention, control measures, and supportive care, includingsupplemental oxygen and mechanical ventilator support when indicated. However, hydroxychloroquineand chloroquine are under investigation in clinical trials for pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxisinfection, and treatment of patients with COVID-19. Also, FDA has issued guidance for administeringand studying the use of convalescent plasma therapy which aims at using antibodies from the blood of arecovered COVID-19 patient to treat those critically affected by the virus. People can take steps to preventthe spread of coronavirus and help protect themselves and others.

Recruitment Strategy for Potential COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Donors

Recruitment Strategy for Potential COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Donors

SARS-CoV-2 viral load and antibody responses: the case for convalescent plasma therapy.

Most patients with COVID-19 lack antibody to SARS-CoV-2 in the first 10 days of illness while the virus drives disease pathogenesis. SARS-CoV-2 antibody deficiency in the setting of a tissue viral burden suggests that using an antibody as a therapeutic agent would augment the antiviral immune response. In this issue of the JCI, Wang and collaborators describe the kinetics of viral load and the antibody responses of 23 individuals with COVID-19 experiencing mild and severe disease. The researchers found that (a) individuals with mild and severe disease produced neutralizing IgG to SARS-CoV-2 10 days after disease onset, (b) SARS-CoV-2 persisted longer in those with severe disease, and (c) there was cross-reactivity between antibodies to SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, but only antibodies from patients with COVID-19 neutralized SARS-CoV-2. These observations provide important information on the serological response to SARS-CoV-2 of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 that can inform the use of convalescent plasma therapy.

Convalescent plasma is a clutch at straws in COVID-19 management! A systematic review and meta-analysis.

In the absence of definitive therapy for coronavirus disease (COVID‐19), convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) may be a critical therapeutic option. This review was conducted to evaluate the impact of CPT in COVID‐19 patients based on the publications reported to date. A robust screening of electronic databases was conducted up to 10th July 2020. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), cohort studies, and case series with a control group evaluating the effectiveness and safety of CPT in patients with COVID‐19 are included for the meta‐analyses. Our search retrieved seven studies, including two RCTs and five cohort studies, with a total of 5444 patients. In patients with COVID‐19, the use of CPT reduces mortality (odd's ratio [OR] 0.44; 95% CI, 0.25‐0.77), increases viral clearance (OR, 11.29; 95% CI, 4.9‐25.9) and improves clinically (OR, 2.06; 95% CI, 0.8 to 4.9). However, the evidence is of low quality (mortality reduction, and viral clearance), and very low quality (clinical improvement). CPT may be beneficial for reducing mortality, viral shedding and improving clinical conditions in COVID‐19 patients. However, further randomized control trials (RCT) are required to substantiate the safety margin, initiation, optimal dosage, titre and duration of CPT.

Convalescent Plasma a Potential Therapy in Covid-19 Patients in Low Resource Setting: Rapid Review

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). At the time of writing, neither a cure nor a vaccine has been approved by the World health organization (WHO) for this disease. Given the fact that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) viruses have a genetic sequencing similar to SARS-CoV-2, and since the use of convalescent plasma therapy (CP) has proved its efficacy in SARS and MERS virus infections, researchers are starting to focus more on it as a possible therapy for the COVID-19 disease. The main objective of this rapid review is to report and summarize the published evidence on the role of convalescent plasma therapy in the current COVID-19 pandemic.
 Method: The PICO method was used to establish the review question. Moreover, papers were gathered from PubMed and Google scholar, critically appraised for the best evidence. Piersons 5-component scheme was used to check the quality of the review papers.
 Results: After website screening: 10 papers in PubMed and 6 papers from Google scholars were retrieved. There were encouraging reports regarding the uses of CP in the previous viral outbreaks likes SARS and Ebola, yet there is still a doubt on the efficacy of this mode of therapy in the current COVID-19 pandemic.
 Conclusion: CP is a very promising treatment approach for COVID-19 patients; however, more clinical trials are required to validate the effectiveness of this therapy.
 Keywords: COVID-19, convalescent plasma therapy, SARS-CoV-2, therapy.

Coronavirus: Basic Information and Precautionary Measures

Corona viruses are a large family of viruses which may cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered coronavirus disease is COVID-19. The COVID-19 epidemic has spread very quickly. It took only 30 days to expand from Hubei to the rest of China since first detected in December 2019. The virus has spread to over 210 countries and territories across the globe in 3 months, and was characterised as a pandemic by the WHO. ICTV announced ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)’ as the name of the new virus. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea. This disease spreads primarily through contact with an infected person when they cough or sneeze through their droplets generated of saliva or discharge from the nose. People of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus. Older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus. To date, there is no vaccine and no specific antiviral medicine to prevent or treat COVID-19. Antibiotic is not useful in this disease. Also hydroxychloroquine has not yet been proven to cure coronavirus. It is still under clinical trial. Few countries have approved the use of convalescent plasma therapy as an experimental treatment in clinical trials and for critically ill COVID-19 patients without other treatment options. The most effective way is to protect yourself and others against COVID-19 by frequently cleaning your hands with an alcohol based hand rub or with soap and water, covering your cough with the bend of elbow or tissue, and maintaining a distance of at least 3 to 6 feet from people who are coughing or sneezing and avoiding touching eyes, nose or mouth and following good respiratory hygiene. Stay home if you feel unwell. If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention and call in advance. Today the world is worried about increasing number of COVID-19 cases. In future, the cases of the COVID-19 may start decreasing when enough people develop immunity, either through infection or vaccination. Another possibility is that the virus will continue to circulate and establish itself as a common respiratory virus. Every beginning has an end and every end has a new beginning. But instead of waiting for future, people must take steps to reduce the spreading of this virus by precautionary measures and following the guidelines by authorities.

Use of Convalescent Plasma Therapy in Two COVID-19 Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Korea

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 not yet has established its treatment, but convalescent plasma has been expected to increase survival rates as in the case with other emerging viral infections. We describe two cases of COVID-19 treated with convalescent plasma infusion. Both patients presented severe pneumonia with acute respiratory distress syndrome and showed a favorable outcome after the use of convalescent plasma in addition to systemic corticosteroid. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the use of convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 in Korea.

Employment of old options to control novel coronavirus: Pros and Cons

Since late December 2019, humans have been under danger due to an outbreak of a coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) disease COVID-19. Worldwide uncontrolled occurrences (16,812,755 cases out of which 662,095 died as on 30th July 2020) of COVID-19, challenge to public health infrastructures and becoming a grave threat to the population. The condition is becoming worse as the disease is transmitting through a vast number of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases. While the World is finding expedited approvals for the development of a vaccine, which is time-dependent, being preventative and not possibly a cure, physicians are considering several age-old immunotherapeutic techniques– the Convalescent plasma (CP) therapy and antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) could be therapeutic options against COVID-19 infection. CP therapy involves the use of passive immunization where the administration of antibodies from a given donor to a susceptible person to initiate the development of immunity to the recipient against SARS-COV-2 is initiated. For the CP therapy to be effective, an adequate amount of antibody has to be administered to the recipient from the donor at the very early stages of the COVID-19 disease. CP therapy for COVID-19 may be beneficial for prophylactic as well as for treatment purposes. But, people may experience any inadvertent untoward effects including immunological reactions and blood-borne pathogenic infections related to blood transfusion. Furthermore, the use of CP therapy may cause antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) or immune enhancement as a result of infectivity and virulence of the pathogen. As employment of the ADE mechanism may be one of the reasons behind the high severity of SARS-CoV-2 among the older population. On the other hand, HCQ has diverse modes of action, like alteration of the acidic environment inside lysosome, late endosomes, restriction further with endocytosis, exosome release, phagolysosomal fusion in systematically and subsequently inhibition of cytokine storm in the host cell. But, a study report from Brazil warns that the high-dose group patients had more severe QT prolongation (syndrome of heart rhythm disorder, causes arrhythmias) and tendency near higher lethality compared to the low dose. At the time of their reporting, the overall fatality rate across both arms of the study was 13.5%. They are indicating that the percentage of fatality rate was overlapping with the patients, not taking HCQ. One of the sums of diverse mechanisms might work against viral infections and help prevent more deaths. Overall, in this situation of unavailability of specific medication, the CP therapy and HCQ treatment might act as an immediate saviour for society from the pandemic.

Convalescent plasma appears efficacious and safe in COVID-19.

A cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown etiology associated with pyrexia and acute respiratory distress was identified in Southern China. Links between the previous severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases and the region’s seafood market were noted with the possibility of a new zoonosis and SARS-CoV-2 was identified as the responsible agent. Currently, there are no effective prophylactic or therapeutic options to deal with coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) or any other human coronavirus (HCoV) infections. Convalescent plasma (CP) therapy is a classic adaptive immunotherapy which has been in use for more a century to prevent and treat infections including SARS, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and H1N1 pandemic. Moreover, the World Health Organization regarded CP transfusion as the most promising therapy to treat MERS-CoV. This review was undertaken to demonstrate the potential of CP in the treatment of the pandemic COVID-19 disease. A total of eight studies conducted on CP therapy in patients with COVID-19 were reviewed wherein 25,028 patients above 18 years of age were involved. The vast majority of patients reported favorable outcomes when treated with CP with <1% serious adverse events. Despite its promising beneficial effects in patients severely ill with COVID-19, CP therapy requires further evaluation in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) as a lack of satisfactory efficacy data from this area certainly enhances the hesitancy with regard to employing this treatment. In the present circumstances of unsatisfactory pharmacological therapy and the urgent need for a successful curative remedy, considering the use of CP therapy is reasonable provided RCTs confirm its safety, efficacy, and tolerability.

Use of Plasma Therapy for Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Encephalopathy

Use of Plasma Therapy for Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Encephalopathy

Use of convalescent plasma therapy in SARS patients in Hong Kong

In order to evaluate the efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in the treatment of patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), 80 SARS patients were given convalescent plasma at Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, between 20 March and 26 May 2003. Good outcome was defined as discharge by day 22 following the onset of SARS symptoms. Poor outcome was defined as death or hospitalization beyond 22 days. A higher day-22 discharge rate was observed among patients who were given convalescent plasma before day 14 of illness (58.3% vs 15.6%; P<0.001) and among those who were PCR positive and seronegative for coronavirus at the time of plasma infusion (66.7% vs 20%; P=0.001).