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Case Reports
. 2021 Jul 1;21(1):630.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-06321-2.

Hyperimmune plasma in three immuno-deficient patients affected by non-severe, prolonged COVID-19: a single-center experience

Maria Grazia Cusi  1 , Edoardo Conticini  2 , Claudia Gandolfo  3 , Gabriele Anichini  3 , Gianni Gori Savellini  3 , Serafina Valente  4   5 , Federico Franchi  5   6 , Sabino Scolletta  5   6 , Elena Percivalle  7 , Bruno Frediani  8   5
Affiliations
Case Reports

Hyperimmune plasma in three immuno-deficient patients affected by non-severe, prolonged COVID-19: a single-center experience

Maria Grazia Cusi et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Convalescent plasma (CP) and hyperimmune plasma (HP) are passive immunotherapies consisting in the infusion of plasma from recovered people into infected patients. Following pre-existing evidence in many other viral diseases, such as SARS, MERS and Ebola, CP and HP have also been proposed for the treatment of COVID-19. Nevertheless, due to the lack of large, well-designed, clinical trials, no clear-cut guidelines exist about what subtype of patient CP and HP should be administered to.

Case presentation: We have reported the cases of 3 patients, all immunosuppressed and affected by non-severe, prolonged COVID-19. They were treated with HP, whose neutralizing titer was higher than 1/80. The first patient was a 55-year-old male, who had undergone lung transplant. He was under therapy with Tacrolimus and developed non-neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV2. The second patient was a 77-year-old female, affected by follicular lymphoma. She had tested positive for SARS-CoV2 after 6 months. The third was a 60-year-old patient, affected by chronic leukemia. He did not develop antibodies after 2-month disease. All 3 patients received HP and had tested negative for SARS-CoV2 within 2 weeks.

Conclusion: Despite encouraging initial data, no strong evidence exist in support of CP and HP to treat COVID-19. In our experience, although limited due to the reduced number of patients, we found a good safety and efficacy of HP in 3 immuno-deficient subjects. Further data are needed in order to assess whether this subtype of patients may particularly benefit from passive immunization.

Keywords: COVID-19; Convalescent plasma; Hyperimmune plasma; Immunodeficiency; SARS-CoV2.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare no conflict of interest or competing interest.

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