The therapeutic effectiveness of Convalescent plasma therapy on treating COVID-19 patients residing in respiratory care units in Baghdad, Iraq

Abstract

Objectives: The current COVID-19 pandemic needs unconventional therapies to tackle the resulted high morbidity and mortality. Convalescent plasma is one of the therapeutic approaches that might be of benefit. Methods: Forty nine early-stage severe and critically-ill COVID-19 patients residing in RCU of three hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq were included, 21 received convalescent plasma while 28 did not receive, namely control group. Recovery or death, length of stay in hospital, and improvement in the clinical course of the disease were monitored clinically along with laboratory monitoring through SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection via PCR, and SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM serological monitoring. Results: Patients received convalescent plasma showed reduced duration of infection in about 4 days, and showed less death rate, 1/21 versus 8/28 in control group. In, addition, all of the patients received convalescent plasma showed high levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM 3 days after plasma transfusion. Plasma from donors with high levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG and donors with positive SRAS-CoV-2 IgM showed better therapeutic results than other donors. Conclusions: Convalescent plasma therapy is an effective mode of therapy if donors with high level of SARS-Cov2 antibodies are selected and if recipients were at their early stage of critical illness, being no more than 3 days in RCU.

Chemoprophylaxis, diagnosis, treatments, and discharge management of COVID-19: An evidence-based clinical practice guideline (updated version)

“…Another RCT [104] (49 participants, of whom 21 received convalescent plasma) showed that convalescent plasma reduced duration of infection about 4 days (19.3 ± 6.9 days vs.23.42 ± 6.4 days, P < 0.05), and showed less death rate (1/21 vs. 8/28, P < 0.05).…”

Evidence favouring the efficacy of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 therapy

“…Convalescent plasma is a century-old passive antibody therapy that has been used to treat outbreaks of novel infectious diseases, including those affecting the respiratory system 1,2 . Due to the lack of vaccines or monoclonal antibody therapies, human convalescent plasma is currently being used wordwide to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19), which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [2][3][4][5] . However, evidence for therapeutic COVID-19 convalescent plasma efficacy still requires definitive support from large randomized clinical trials (RCT).…”

“…25 Wisconsin, USA 27 Forest plot illustrating odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals for controlled studies and aggregate fixed effect models. Fixed effect ORs for Duan et al 26 , Rasheed et al 19 , Perotti et al 23 , Hegerova et al 21 , Zeng et al 9 , Donato et al 10 , Liu et al 22 , Salazar et al 11 , Gharbharan et al 8 , Xia et al 12 , Abolghasemi et al 24 , and Li et al 7 are represented in blue. The aggregate fixed effect model OR is represented in shaded blue.…”

Characterization and Phase 1 Trial of a B Cell Activating Anti-CD73 Antibody for the Immunotherapy of COVID-19

“…Clinical studies with CCP suggest that higher titers of neutralizing antibody provide superior clinical benefit to recipients. [9,10] These findings support the value of anti-viral antibodies in eradicating viral infection in patients, lessening disease severity, and potentially reducing transmission.…”