A study recently revealed that the critically ill patients of Covid 19 can be treated with non-altered stem cells from the umbilical cord connective tissue. The study states that people treated with this method are more likely to survive than the ones who don’t.
Clinical Trials Already Started For Critical Covid 19 Patients With Underlying Conditions
The clinical trial is already being carried out at four hospitals in Jakarta, Indonesia, also showed that administering the treatment to Covid-19 patients with an added chronic health condition such as diabetes, hypertension or kidney disease increased their survival more than fourfold.
ALSO READ:Vitamin D may not protect from Covid infection or severity
The findings were published in the STEM CELLS Translational Medicine. All 40 patients who took part in the double-blind, controlled, randomised study were adults in intensive care who had been intubated due to Covid-19-induced pneumonia.
Half of the patients were given intravenous infusions that contain the umbilical mesenchymal stromal cells or stem cells derived from the connective tissue of a human birth cord, and half were given infusions without them.
Stem Cell Infusion is Safe and Well Tolerated
Ismail Hadisoebroto Dilogo, Professor at Cipto Mangunkusumo Central Hospital-Universitas (in Indonesia) said that the survival rate of those receiving the stem cells was 2.5 times higher and climbed even more than 4.5 times in the Covid-19 patients who had other chronic health conditions.
He further said that the stem cell infusion also was found to be safe and well-tolerated with no life-threatening complications or acute allergic reactions in seven days of post-infusion monitoring.
ALSO READ:Vaccination, Covid boost natural immunity against SARS-CoV-2: Study
Reports also suggest that the previous clinical trials have shown that treating the Covid 19 pneumonia patients with stem cells from the umbilical cord connective tissue may help them survive and recover more quickly. But the Indonesian study is the first to treat intubated, critically ill Covid-19 pneumonia patients with a naive, or non-genetically manipulated, form of the stem cells.
Dilogo also said that, unlike other studies, their study used stem cells obtained through explants from actual umbilical cord tissue and we did not manipulate them to exclude ACE2, a cellular protein thought to be an entry point for Covid-19.
