sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
The feasibility of convalescent plasma therapy in severe COVID-19 patients: a pilot study
Kai Duan, Bende Liu, Cesheng Li, Huajun Zhang, Tin g Yu, Jieming Qu, Min Zhou, Li Chen, Shengli Meng, Yong Hu, Cheng Peng, Mingchao Yuan, Jinyan Huang, Zejun Wang, Jianhong Yu, Xiaoxiao Gao, Dan Wang, Xiaoqi Yu, Li Li, Jiayou Zhang, Xiao Wu, Bei Li, Y anping Yu, Wei Chen, Yan Peng, Yeqin Hu, Lianzhen Lin, Xuefei Liu, Shihe Huang, Zhijun Zhou, Liangha o Zhang, Yue Wang, Zhi Zhang, Kun Deng, Zhiwu Xia, Qin Gong, Wei Zhang, Xiaobei Zheng, Ying Liu, Hui chuan Yang, Dongbo Zhou, Ding Yu, Jifeng Hou, Zhen gli Shi, Saijuan Chen, Zhu Chen, Xin-xin Zhang, Xiaoming Yang
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.16.20036145
This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.
Abstract
Currently, there are no approved specific antiviral agents for 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In this study, ten severe patients confirmed by real-time viral RNA test were enrolled prospectively. One dose of 200 mL convalescent plasma (CP) derived from recently recovered donors with the neutralizing antibody titers above 1:640 was transfused to the patients as an addition to maximal supportive care and antiviral agents. The primary endpoint was the safety of CP transfusion. The second endpoints were the improvement of clinical symptoms and laboratory parameters within 3 days after CP transfusion. The median time from onset of illness to CP transfusion was 16.5 days. After CP transfusion, the level of neutralizing antibody increased rapidly up to 1:640 in five cases, while that of the other four cases maintained at a high level (1:640). The clinical symptoms were significantly improved along with increase of oxyhemoglobin saturation within 3 days. Several parameters tended to improve as compared to pre-transfusion, including increased lymphocyte counts (0.65*109/L vs. 0.76*109/L) and decreased C-reactive protein (55.98 mg/L vs. 18.13 mg/L). Radiological examinations showed varying degrees of absorption of lung lesions within 7 days. The viral load was undetectable after transfusion in seven patients who had previous viremia. No severe adverse effects were observed. This study showed CP therapy was well tolerated and could potentially improve the clinical outcomes through neutralizing viremia in severe COVID-19 cases. The optimal dose and time point, as well as the clinical benefit of CP therapy, needs further investigation in larger well-controlled trials.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....16.20036145v1
Kai Duan, Bende Liu, Cesheng Li, Huajun Zhang, Tin g Yu, Jieming Qu, Min Zhou, Li Chen, Shengli Meng, Yong Hu, Cheng Peng, Mingchao Yuan, Jinyan Huang, Zejun Wang, Jianhong Yu, Xiaoxiao Gao, Dan Wang, Xiaoqi Yu, Li Li, Jiayou Zhang, Xiao Wu, Bei Li, Y anping Yu, Wei Chen, Yan Peng, Yeqin Hu, Lianzhen Lin, Xuefei Liu, Shihe Huang, Zhijun Zhou, Liangha o Zhang, Yue Wang, Zhi Zhang, Kun Deng, Zhiwu Xia, Qin Gong, Wei Zhang, Xiaobei Zheng, Ying Liu, Hui chuan Yang, Dongbo Zhou, Ding Yu, Jifeng Hou, Zhen gli Shi, Saijuan Chen, Zhu Chen, Xin-xin Zhang, Xiaoming Yang
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.16.20036145
This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.
Abstract
Currently, there are no approved specific antiviral agents for 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In this study, ten severe patients confirmed by real-time viral RNA test were enrolled prospectively. One dose of 200 mL convalescent plasma (CP) derived from recently recovered donors with the neutralizing antibody titers above 1:640 was transfused to the patients as an addition to maximal supportive care and antiviral agents. The primary endpoint was the safety of CP transfusion. The second endpoints were the improvement of clinical symptoms and laboratory parameters within 3 days after CP transfusion. The median time from onset of illness to CP transfusion was 16.5 days. After CP transfusion, the level of neutralizing antibody increased rapidly up to 1:640 in five cases, while that of the other four cases maintained at a high level (1:640). The clinical symptoms were significantly improved along with increase of oxyhemoglobin saturation within 3 days. Several parameters tended to improve as compared to pre-transfusion, including increased lymphocyte counts (0.65*109/L vs. 0.76*109/L) and decreased C-reactive protein (55.98 mg/L vs. 18.13 mg/L). Radiological examinations showed varying degrees of absorption of lung lesions within 7 days. The viral load was undetectable after transfusion in seven patients who had previous viremia. No severe adverse effects were observed. This study showed CP therapy was well tolerated and could potentially improve the clinical outcomes through neutralizing viremia in severe COVID-19 cases. The optimal dose and time point, as well as the clinical benefit of CP therapy, needs further investigation in larger well-controlled trials.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....16.20036145v1