Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Applied Cell Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran.
Regenerative Medicine Group (REMED), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Urmia, Iran.
Stem Cell Rev Rep. 2021 Feb;17(1):56-62. doi: 10.1007/s12015-020-10046-1. Epub 2020 Oct 3.
The race among countries and companies to develop efficacious vaccines and therapeutics for the COVID-19 is ongoing fast, with many trials underway. Among this, cell-based therapy is focused on moderate to severe phases of COVID-19, and there have been promising outcomes. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) due to their pro/anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory behavior, Natural Killer (NK) cells thanks to their capacity of lysing virus-infected cells and regulate the resulting immune response, Dendritic cells thanks to immunotherapy and cell-based vaccine engineering, SARS-CoV2-specific T cells due to stimulate and promote the immune system and MSC-derived exosomes because of cell-free therapy and beneficial manufacturing aspects, hold great promises for cell-based therapy applications for treating COVID-19 and similar viral infections. Moreover, recently, an innovative approach to COVID-19 based on engineered human MSC has been introduced, which is continuously evacuated and degraded by the body's immune system during the antigen recognition process. However, the economic situation of governments and nations, and the cost of therapeutics influence the clinical approaches to manage and exit from this pandemic. This summary describes cell-based clinical trials and the cost-utility aspects of cell therapy. In this regard, limited clinical studies have been reported; while, several clinical trials have been approved for starting phases 2 and 3 of their trials for treating COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Regarding the cost of cell therapy, many believe that the high cost of cell-based therapy will decrease substantially. Hence, there are hopes that cellular therapy can be approved soon for the treatment of viral diseases such as COVID-19. Graphical abstract.
各国和公司竞相开发针对 COVID-19 的有效疫苗和疗法，竞争非常激烈，许多试验正在进行中。其中，细胞疗法主要针对 COVID-19 的中重度阶段，已经取得了令人鼓舞的结果。间充质干细胞（MSCs）因其抗炎和免疫调节特性，自然杀伤（NK）细胞因其裂解病毒感染细胞的能力和调节由此产生的免疫反应的能力，树突状细胞因其免疫疗法和细胞疫苗工程，SARS-CoV2 特异性 T 细胞因其刺激和促进免疫系统的能力，以及 MSC 衍生的外泌体因其无细胞治疗和有益的制造方面的特性，在治疗 COVID-19 和类似病毒感染的细胞疗法应用中具有巨大的潜力。此外，最近，一种基于工程化人类 MSC 的 COVID-19 创新治疗方法已经问世，该方法在抗原识别过程中被身体免疫系统不断清除和降解。然而，政府和国家的经济状况以及治疗的成本影响了管理和摆脱这一大流行病的临床方法。本综述描述了基于细胞的临床试验和细胞治疗的成本效益方面。在这方面，已经报道了有限的临床研究；然而，已经有几项临床试验获准开始其治疗急性呼吸窘迫综合征 COVID-19 患者的 2 期和 3 期试验。关于细胞治疗的成本，许多人认为细胞治疗的高成本将大幅降低。因此，人们希望细胞疗法能很快获准用于治疗 COVID-19 等病毒疾病。图表摘要。
