Researchers ask if survivor plasma could prevent coronavirus

Survivors of COVID-19 are donating ir blood plasma in droves in hopes it helps or patients recover from coronavirus. And while jury’s still out, w scientists are testing if donations might also prevent infection in first place.

Thousands of coronavirus patients in hospitals around world have been treated with so-called convalescent plasma — including more than 20,000 in U.S. — with little solid evidence so far that it makes a difference. One recent study from China was unclear while ar from New York offered a hint of benefit.

“We have glimmers of hope,” said Dr. Shmuel Shoham of Johns Hopkins University.

With more rigorous testing of plasma treatment underway, Shoham is launching a nationwide study asking next logical question: Could giving survivors plasma right after a high-risk exposure to virus stave off illness?

To tell, researchers at Hopkins and 15 or sites will recruit health workers, spouses of sick and residents of nursing homes where someone just fell ill and “y’re trying to nip it in bud,” Shoham said.

It’s a strict study: 150 volunteers will be randomly assigned to get eir plasma from COVID-19 survivors that contains coronavirus-fighting antibodies or regular plasma, like is used daily in hospitals, that was frozen prior to pandemic. Scientists will track if re’s a difference in who gets sick.

It if works, survivor plasma could have important ramifications until a vaccine arrives — raising prospect of possibly protecting high-risk people with temporary immune-boosting infusions every so often.

“y’re a paramedic, y’re a police officer, y’re a poultry industry worker, y’re a submarine naval officer,” Shoham ticked off. “Can we blanket protect m?”

new coronavirus has infected more than 7 million people worldwide and killed more than 400,000, according to official tallies believed to be an underestimate. With good treatments yet, researchers are frantically studying everything from drugs that tackle or viruses to survivor plasma — a century-old remedy used to fight infection before modern medicines came along.

historical evidence is sketchy, but convalescent plasma’s most famous use was during 1918 flu pandemic, and reports suggest that recipients were less likely to die. Doctors still dust off approach to tackle surprise outbreaks, like SARS, a cousin of COVID-19, in 2002 and 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, but even those recent uses lacked rigorous research.

When body encounters a new germ, it makes proteins called antibodies that are specially targeted to fight infection. antibodies float in plasma — yellowish, liquid part of blood.

Because it takes a few weeks for antibodies to form, hope is that transfusing someone else’s antibodies could help patients fight virus before ir own immune system kicks in. One donation is typically divided into two or three treatments.

And as more people survive COVID-19, re are increasing calls for m to donate plasma so re’s eugh of a stockpile if it pans out. In dition to tritional infusions, donations can be combined into a high-dose product. Manufacturer Grifols is producing doses of that “hyperimmune globulin” for a study expected to start next month.

Convalescent plasma seems safe to use, Dr. Michael Joyner of Mayo Clinic reported last month. His team tracked first 5,000 plasma recipients in a Food and Drug ministration-sponsored program that helps hospitals use experimental treatment, and found few serious side effects.

Does it help recovery? A clue comes from first 39 patients treated at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. Researchers compared each plasma recipient to four or COVID-19 patients who didn’t get plasma but were same , just as sick and being given same amount of oxygen. People who received plasma before needing a ventilator were less likely to die than n-plasma recipients, said Dr. Sean Liu, study’s le author.

“We really tried to target patients who were early in ir course, preferably within first one to two weeks of ir disease,” Liu said.

“Being a doctor during this time, you just feel helpless,” Liu ded, stressing that more rigorous study was needed but he was gl to have tried this first-step research. “Watching people die is, it’s heartbreaking. It’s scary and it’s heartbreaking.”

But results of first strictly controlled study were disappointing. Hospitals in hard-hit Chinese city of Wuhan were comparing severely ill patients randomly assigned to receive plasma or regular care, but ran out of new patients when virus waned.

With only half of 200 planned patients enrolled, more plasma recipients survived but researchers couldn’t tell if it was a real difference or coincidence, according to a report in Journal of American Medical Association last week.

real proof will come from ongoing, strict studies that compare patients assigned to get eir survivor plasma or a dummy treatment.

Furr complicating search for answers, COVID-19 survivors harbor widely varying levels of antibodies. And while researchers want to use what Hopkins’ Shoham calls “ high-octane stuff,” one kws best dose to test.

“About 20% of recovered patients and dors have very strong immunity,” estimated Dr. Michele Donato of Hackensack University Medical Center, who is studying how long y retain that level of protection.

Those are people researchers want to become repeat dors.

“It’s, I think, our job as humans to step forward and help in society,” said Aubrie Cresswell, 24, of Bear, Delaware, who has donated three times and counting.

One donation was shipped to a hospitalized friend of a friend, and “it brought me to tears. I was like, overwhelmed with it just because family was really thankful.”