Convalescent Plasma Therapy in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Patients: A Brief Review

Abstract

The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has reevaluated effectiveness of the convalescent plasma therapy (CPT). This review was carried out to assess the usefulness of CPT in critically COVID-19 patients, based on the published data to date. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second review of the usefulness of CPT in COVID-19 patients. PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline and EMBASE databases were searched for the relevant reports up to June 21, 2020. All the records of the published data were analyzed according to eligibility criteria protocols. Five different studies on CPT for COVID-19 critically ill patients were included in this review. The significant findings from the records are: (a) the CPT may help to reduce mortality in the seriously ill patients (b) administration of CPT increased antibodies titer and reduced the level of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA beyond detection limit (c) transfusion of convalescent plasma (CP) subsided clinical symptoms. Based on the currently available data, the CPT in the COVID-19 patients seems effective, safe and reduces mortality. There is urgent need of performing well-designed, multicenter clinical trials for establishing efficacy of the CPT in COVID-19 patients.