Stem Cell Based Therapy Option in COVID-19: Is It Really Promising?

Abstract

The COVID-19 patients were first detected in China, in December 2019, then the novel virus with associated pneumonia and other diseases spread quickly to worldwide becoming a serious public health intimidation. Despite all the efforts, the pharmacological agents used for controlling or treating the disease, especially respiratory problems, have not been accomplished so far. Among various treatment options, mesenchymal stem cell-based cellular therapies are being investigated, because of their regeneration ability and multipotency along with other features like immunomodulation, antifibrosis and anti-inflammatory effects. This paper intends to analyze the current clinical trials on stem cell treatment of novel virus, searching and reviewing the available information and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) of World Health Organization (WHO). We concluded that the stem cell treatment of COVID-19 is found promising with pilot studies' results, but still in the early development phase. There is an urgent need for large-scale investigations to confirm and validate the safety and efficacy profile of these therapies with reliable scientific evidence.

Keywords: COVID-19; Stem cell; clinical; treatment; trials.

Figure 1.

Demonstration of the SARS-CoV impact during the general immune reaction function. (PRRs: pattern recognition receptors, TLR: Toll-like receptor, NLR: NOD)-like receptors, RLR: retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I)-like receptors, IFN: Interferone).

Figure 1.

First step trial selection by searching in the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) of WHO with COVID-19, Coronavirus, New Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-19 key words. The clinical trials are either excluded or selected based on the study type (interventional and treatment trials are selected) and study phase (only the trials whose phase of development mentioned are selected. The further selection is done by the additional key word of stem cell and finally 16 trials are selected as a result of first step trial selection. (search date: 18 April 2020)