$CAPR; READING; Newsroom HomeCOVID-19: Patients Improve After Heart Cell Therapy
Los Angeles,May12,2020
COVID-19: Patients Improve After Heart Cell Therapy
Experimental Treatment Is Designed to Fight Fatal Immune Response in Coronavirus Patients
Four of six critically ill COVID-19 (coronavirus)
patients significantly improved after receiving an experimental therapeutic designed to reduce inflammation,
a major cause of death from this disease, according to a case series published by Cedars-Sinai and Capricor Therapeutics.
The four patients got well enough to be discharged from the hospital.
The therapeutic, known as CAP-1002, contains cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) that are grown in the laboratory from human heart tissues.
Previous preclinical and clinical research showed that the CDCs, originally created by a process developed to treat heart failure, can help the whole body.
Investigators emphasized that the patient outcomes, while encouraging, are not sufficient to prove that CAP-1002 is safe and effective for treating COVID-19 because this was not a clinical trial with a control group.
The case series, published today in the scientific journal Basic Research in Cardiology, is believed to be the first peer-reviewed report
on using a cell therapy in critically ill COVID-19 patients, according to Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.
All six patients in the case series suffered from respiratory failure and required supplemental oxygen prior to receiving the cell therapy;
five were on ventilators. [ODDS ON VENTILATORS 80% DIE]
Within four days after infusion with CAP-1002, four patients were able to breathe without respiratory support, and within less than three weeks, the four were well enough to be discharged from the hospital.
As of April 28, the two other patients remained hospitalized in intensive care.
Friendly fire' is what's killing many coronavirus patients.
The immune system unleashes a so-called cytokine storm into the blood—overwhelming the body with infection-fighting proteins that can trigger multiple-organ failure and death.
Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director, Smidt Heart Institute
None of the patients showed adverse effects from the infusions,
and none died during the study period.
By comparison, six patients died among a group of 34 comparable
COVID-19 patients who were treated in Cedars-Sinai's intensive care unit around the same time but who did not receive the cell therapy.
The patients in the case series were treated at Cedars-Sinai under emergency use provisions, which allows use of therapies not yet
approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat seriously ill patients when no other treatments are available.
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