200317 Mohamed bin Zayed
File image: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, delivers a speech about the UAE’s COVID-19 response. Image Credit: WAM

Abu Dhabi: His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has ordered payment of all costs related to treatment of critical cases of coronavirus through stem cell therapy.

The initiative of Sheikh Mohamed comes after the Abu Dhabi Stem Cell Center, ADSCC, announced development of an innovative and promising treatment for COVID-19 infections using stem cells.

The treatment was administered in the UAE to 73 COVID-19 patients who have all been successfully treated and cured of the virus by inhaling the treatment into their lungs after it was nebulized into a fine mist.

The ADSCC’s initiative aims to encourage medical research to develop a COVID-19 treatment by utilizing human and technical capabilities, providing necessary technology and facilitating its use in all hospitals of the UAE.

According to the ADSCC, the new potential therapy is a supportive treatment that rather helps coronavirus patients overcome the symptoms of the virus. However, it does not kill the virus on its own.

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It involves taking a blood sample from the patient with the therapy used to activate these cells so that they can get inhaled back into the lungs.

It is hypothesized to have its therapeutic effect by regenerating lung cells and modulating the immune response to keep it from overreacting to the COVID-19 infection and causing further damage to healthy cells.

The treatment has been given to patients along with the conventional medical intervention and will continue to be applied as an adjunct to established treatment protocols rather than as a replacement.