Stem Cell Educator Therapy Treat the Viral Inflammation in COVID-19

Summary

Currently, the growing epidemic of a new coronavirus infectious disease (Covid-19) is wreaking havoc worldwide, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 is a RNA virus that display high similarity in both genomic and proteomic profiling with SARS-CoV that first emerged in humans in 2003 in China. Therefore, preventing and controlling the pandemic occurrences are extremely urgent as a global top priority. Due to the lack of effective antiviral drugs, patients may be treated by only addressing their symptoms such as reducing fever. Clinical autopsies from SARS-CoV-infected patients demonstrated that there were major pathological changes in the lungs, immune organs, and small systemic blood vessels with vasculitis. However, the detection of SARS-CoV were primarily found in the lung and trachea/bronchus, but was undetectable in spleen, lymph nodes, bone marrow, heart and aorta, highlighting the overreaction of immune responses induced by viral infection were really harmful, resulting in the pathogenesis of lungs, immune organs, and small systemic blood vessels. To this respect, immune modulation strategy may be potentially beneficial to enhance anti-viral immunity and efficiently reduce the viral load, improve clinical outcomes, expedite the patient recovery, and decline the rate of mortality in patients after being infected with SARS-CoV-2. Tianhe Stem Cell Biotechnologies Inc. has developed a novel globally-patented Stem Cell Educator (SCE) technology designed to reverse the autoimmune response in Type 1 diabetes (T1D), Alopecia Areata (AA) and other autoimmune diseases. SCE therapy uses human multipotent cord blood stem cells (CB-SC) from human cord blood. Their properties distinguish CB-SC from other known stem cell types, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). Several clinical studies show that SCE therapy functions via CB-SC induction of immune tolerance in autoimmune T cells and restore immune balance and homeostasis in patients with T1D, AA and other inflammation-associated diseases. To correct the overreaction of overreaction of immune responses, the investigators plan to treat SARS-CoV-2 patients with Stem Cell Educator therapy.

Timeline

Start

2021-11-10

Primary completion

2022-04-09

Completion

2022-06-10

Publications

• Background Zhao Y, Jiang Z, Zhao T, Ye M, Hu C, Yin Z, Li H, Zhang Y, Diao Y, Li Y, Chen Y, Sun X, Fisk MB, Skidgel R, Holterman M, Prabhakar B, Mazzone T. Reversal of type 1 diabetes via islet beta cell regeneration following immune modulation by cord blood-derived multipotent stem cells. BMC Med. 2012 Jan 10;10:3. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-10-3.
• Background Zhao Y. Stem cell educator therapy and induction of immune balance. Curr Diab Rep. 2012 Oct;12(5):517-23. doi: 10.1007/s11892-012-0308-1.
• Background Zhao Y, Jiang Z, Zhao T, Ye M, Hu C, Zhou H, Yin Z, Chen Y, Zhang Y, Wang S, Shen J, Thaker H, Jain S, Li Y, Diao Y, Chen Y, Sun X, Fisk MB, Li H. Targeting insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes via immune modulation of cord blood-derived multipotent stem cells (CB-SCs) in stem cell educator therapy: phase I/II clinical trial. BMC Med. 2013 Jul 9;11:160. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-11-160.
• Background Li Y, Yan B, Wang H, Li H, Li Q, Zhao D, Chen Y, Zhang Y, Li W, Zhang J, Wang S, Shen J, Li Y, Guindi E, Zhao Y. Hair regrowth in alopecia areata patients following Stem Cell Educator therapy. BMC Med. 2015 Apr 20;13:87. doi: 10.1186/s12916-015-0331-6.
• Background Delgado E, Perez-Basterrechea M, Suarez-Alvarez B, Zhou H, Revuelta EM, Garcia-Gala JM, Perez S, Alvarez-Viejo M, Menendez E, Lopez-Larrea C, Tang R, Zhu Z, Hu W, Moss T, Guindi E, Otero J, Zhao Y. Modulation of Autoimmune T-Cell Memory by Stem Cell Educator Therapy: Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial. EBioMedicine. 2015 Nov 5;2(12):2024-36. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2015.11.003. eCollection 2015 Dec.
• Background Zhao Y, Jiang Z, Delgado E, Li H, Zhou H, Hu W, Perez-Basterrechea M, Janostakova A, Tan Q, Wang J, Mao M, Yin Z, Zhang Y, Li Y, Li Q, Zhou J, Li Y, Martinez Revuelta E, Maria Garcia-Gala J, Wang H, Perez-Lopez S, Alvarez-Viejo M, Menendez E, Moss T, Guindi E, Otero J. Platelet-Derived Mitochondria Display Embryonic Stem Cell Markers and Improve Pancreatic Islet beta-cell Function in Humans. Stem Cells Transl Med. 2017 Aug;6(8):1684-1697. doi: 10.1002/sctm.17-0078. Epub 2017 Jul 7.

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