Convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19: If I test positive, can plasma cure me?

CLINICAL DATA: Researchers investigated how beneficial is the transfusion of convalescent plasma (serum from recovered COVID-19 patients) in treating critically ill patients with COVID-19. A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) shows interesting and encouraging results. Moreover, Epidimiology experts consider convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) is considered a “classic adaptive immunotherapy”. For more than a century, CPT has been applied to the prevention and treatment of many infectious diseases. And over the past two decades, CP therapy was successfully used in the treatment of SARS, MERS, and 2009 H1N1 pandemic “with satisfactory efficacy and safety”, according to a study published on April 6, 2020 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

WHAT IS CONVALESCENT PLASMA THERAPY (CPT)?: Experts consider convalescent plasma therapy a “classic adaptive immunotherapy”. For more than a century, CPT has been applied to the prevention and treatment of many infectious diseases. And over the past two decades, CPT was successfully used in the treatment of SARS, MERS, and 2009 H1N1 pandemic “with satisfactory efficacy and safety”, according to a paper published early in April in the prestigious PNAS.

SIGNIFICANCE: Analysis from 32 studies of SARS coronavirus infection and severe influenza showed a “statistically significant reduction” in mortality following CPT, compared with placebo or no therapy. However, the CPT was unable to significantly improve survival in the Ebola virus disease. Experts believe this was “probably due to the absence of data of neutralizing antibody titration for stratified analysis”.

DID THE CRITICALLY-ILL COVID-19 PATIENTS RECOVER AFTER BEING ADMINISTERED CPT?: Yes. According to the JAMA study published on March 27, 2020, researchers found (uncontrolled case series of 5 critically-ill patients with COVID-19 and ARDS, or acute respiratory distress syndrome), the administration of CPT containing neutralising antibody “was followed by an improvement in clinical status”. Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763983

WHY IS CPT IMPORTANT? Since the virological and clinical characteristics share similarity among SARS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and COVID-19, convalescent plasma therapy is seen as a promising treatment option for COVID-19 patients. Those who have recovered from COVID-19 with a high neutralizing antibody “titer" may be a valuable donor source of CPT. Source: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/02/2004168117

UPSIDE: The key upside of CPT is that it works, even on critically-ill patients, according to peer-reviewed studies published in some of the most prestigious medical journals. That means administering CPT has been credited by these investigators for helping save the lives of patients who may have died otherwise. However, no health authority has officially announced approval for this therapy. The US FDA has issued guidance/recommendations to health care providers and investigators on the administration and study of investigational CPT. Source: https://bit.ly/34wr6pp