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Clinical Trial
. 2023 Apr;118(4):296-300.
doi: 10.1111/vox.13406. Epub 2023 Feb 3.

Pathogen reduction with methylene blue does not have an impact on the clinical effectiveness of COVID-19 convalescent plasma

Irene Romera Martínez  1   2 , José Luis Bueno Cabrera  1   2 , José María Domingo-Morera  3 , Juan Carlos López Aguilar  4 , Carolina Villegas Da Ros  5 , José Antonio García Erce  6   7   8 , Isabel Sáez Serrano  9 , Elena Flores Ballester  10 , Laura Analía Maglio  11 , Cristina Arbona Castaño  12 , Carlos Sola Lapeña  13 , Luisa Guerra Domínguez  14 , Margarita Berberana Fernández  15 , María Elena Madrigal Sánchez  16 , Martín Rubio Batllés  17 , Mayte Pérez-Olmeda  18   19 , Antonio Ramos-Martínez  20 , Ana Velasco-Iglesias  21 , Cristina Avendaño-Solá  22   23 , Rafael F Duarte  1   2
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Pathogen reduction with methylene blue does not have an impact on the clinical effectiveness of COVID-19 convalescent plasma

Irene Romera Martínez et al. Vox Sang. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

Background and objectives: There is a concern about a possible deleterious effect of pathogen reduction (PR) with methylene blue (MB) on the function of immunoglobulins of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP). We have evaluated whether MB-treated CCP is associated with a poorer clinical response compared to other inactivation systems at the ConPlas-19 clinical trial.

Materials and methods: This was an ad hoc sub-study of the ConPlas-19 clinical trial comparing the proportion of patients transfused with MB-treated CCP who had a worsening of respiration versus those treated with amotosalen (AM) or riboflavin (RB).

Results: One-hundred and seventy-five inpatients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia were transfused with a single CCP unit. The inactivation system of the CCP units transfused was MB in 90 patients (51.4%), RB in 60 (34.3%) and AM in 25 (14.3%). Five out of 90 patients (5.6%) transfused with MB-treated CCP had worsening respiration compared to 9 out of 85 patients (10.6%) treated with alternative PR methods (p = 0.220). Of note, MB showed a trend towards a lower rate of respiratory progressions at 28 days (risk ratio, 0.52; 95% confidence interval, 0.18-1.50).

Conclusion: Our data suggest that MB-treated CCP does not provide a worse clinical outcome compared to the other PR methods for the treatment of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; convalescent plasma; methylene blue; passive immunotherapy; pathogen inactivation.

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References

REFERENCES

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