A coronavirus treatment already approved in the UK and US which uses blood from recovered patients can help patients get better, a study has found.
Ten COVID-19 patients in China who were severely ill in hospital saw their symptoms disappear or rapidly improve within three days after the therapy.
They were given a dose of blood donated from COVID-19 survivors, which had the antibodies necessary for their immune system to clear the virus.
Known as convalescent plasma therapy, it has recently been given the green light by medical regulators in the UK and US to trial on critically ill patients, following the lead of hospitals in China.
As well as proving to be life-saving, the therapy appears to be safe so far, with no serious side effects observed in the small study group.
It comes after a New York City mother who survived coronavirus last week became one of the first Americans to donate her blood plasma in hope of helping others. Tiffany Pinckney, 39, said she felt like ‘a beacon of hope’ for those suffering.
But although experts say convalescent plasma is ‘an important area to pursue’, there is no conclusive evidence it is effective yet.
There is no cure for the killer coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.3million people worldwide and killed almost 80,000. Thousands of patients worldwide are involved in trials of promising medicines.
A key advantage to the blood based therapy is that it’s available immediately and relies only drawing blood from a former patient.
It is also significantly cheaper than developing a new drug, which costs millions to take through trials and regulation before mass production.
The treatment – used for around a century for other infections – works by bolstering a patient’s own immune system to fight the virus.
Infusing patients with blood plasma has also been used to tackle SARS and MERS, two similar coronaviruses, as well as the deadly infection Ebola.
Plasma makes up around 55 per cent of all blood volume and provides the liquid for red and white blood cells to be carried around the body in.
By injecting this into patients it can provide their bodies with a vital dose of crucial substances called antibodies.
Antibodies can only be created by people who have already been infected and learnt how to fight off an infection, such as SARS-CoV-2.
It may be the best hope for COVID-19 patients while scientists work to develop new, specific treatments for the disease.
It is significantly cheaper than developing a new drug, which costs millions of dollars to take through trials and regulation before mass production.
The study in Wuhan – where the coronavirus pandemic began in December – was led by Kai Duan of China’s National Biotec Group Co. Ltd.
Because it was a pilot study, which assess the feasibility of a treatment, the findings are only preliminary.
However, the results were published in a respected journal called the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.
Ten patients at three different hospitals were enrolled to get convalescent plasma therapy. They also received other promising drugs.
The researchers said all clinical symptoms, which included the tell-tale signs of a fever and cough, subsided within three days.
The patients’ liver and lung function as well as blood oxygen levels were also found to have improved, signs they had fought off the virus.
The numbers of disease-fighting white blood cells, lymphocytes, also increased, and antibody levels remained high after CP transfusion, the researchers said.
Two of three patients who were hooked up to a ventilator to assist with breathing were taken off, and given oxygen delivered into the nose.
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