Stem Cells vs. COVID-19

Paul S. Knoepfler is a professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy at the Genome Center and the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California. In his blog, he comments on the latest news about the effectiveness of stem cells against coronavirus infection.

The number of registered clinical trials of stem cells for the treatment of COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus continues to grow, especially in China.

Part of the picture from the preprint, which states about stem cells that improved the outcome of COVID-19 disease. The condition of the lungs on the X-ray first worsened (more granular infiltrate in the air spaces) as the disease progressed, and then improved after stem cell infusions.

Over the past two weeks, I've been trying to set aside some time to study these studies in more detail, but I haven't been able to delve deep enough because I've been very busy with other things.

What I have read so far in the research descriptions about COVID-19 and stem cells has not convinced me that stem cells can be useful for the treatment of COVD-19. The rationale for this approach seemed shaky to me.

Can I be categorically wrong?

I doubt. Over the past few days, Chinese researchers have published introductory fragments of two articles claiming that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been successfully used to treat patients with coronavirus infection, and this information has been picked up by the media.

Journalist Steven Chen wrote about these alleged "successes" in a news article in the South China Morning Post. In my opinion, the headline looks too rosy: "Coronavirus: seriously ill Chinese patient saved by stem cell therapy – study results".

Here are two key points under the headline of the news article that also reflect optimistic views:

• A 65-year-old woman in the intensive care unit of Kunming Hospital did not show any adverse effects of the first course of therapy, and after two she started walking again, the researchers say.
• The results "may be very important and inspire similar clinical tactics in the treatment of severe patients with Covid-19."

I dug up two preprints that became the basis of Chen's article:

ACE2-mesenchymal stem cell transplantation improves the outcome of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
The key statement: "MSCs can cure or significantly improve the results of seven patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in 14 days without an observed adverse effect." See above image of deterioration and then improvement on the X-ray from the preprint.

Clinical remission in a critically ill COVID-19 patient treated with human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells.
Key statement: "Our results have shown that adoptive transfer therapy with human umbilical cord MSCs may be an ideal choice for use or combination with other immunomodulatory agents for the treatment of critically ill patients with COVID-19."

I can't help myself and am skeptical of these reports after studying them.

I hope I'm wrong, but all of this (especially the news article) has given me some dark deja vu from the past about stem cell clinics and personalities claiming they can make a paralyzed person walk again.

Of course, in reality these are just short reports of clinical cases, and they should be interpreted with great caution, since spontaneous recovery cannot be ruled out, this is how rapid clinical trials are conducted during an outbreak.

Do you agree? What do you think about this?

At the end of Chen's article, we have the words of one of the researchers:

"According to Dr. Li Honghui, who is participating in similar trials at Loudi Central Hospital in the central part of Hunan Province, stem cell injections can give significant results within three days.

"We can't stick to the rules, we have to show courage and innovation," he said in a Hunan Daily report last week."

Let's see what the use of stem cells against coronavirus will lead to. I believe that we will not see clinical confirmation of unproven statements, for example, about lung health in general or something like that.

This is the opinion of Paul Knopfler.

And in the comments, readers of the blog write that the idea of treating coronavirus infection with stem cells is "too good to be true," that "fear, despair and greed often combine in malicious forms," and information incompetence is another "dangerous side effect of coronavirus." Another commenter notes: "In retellings of messages that we often see with the headline "FDA approves clinical trial for [insert disease] using stem cells..." sellers skip the words "clinical trial" and use the statement "FDA approves..." to deceive an unsuspecting patient."

Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Knoepfler Lab Stem Cell Blog: ‘We Cannot Stick to the Rules’: claims of stem cells saving COVID-19 patients.