Pune: With Maharashtra getting the green signal from the Central Government to administer plasma therapy to coronavirus (COVID-19) positive patients, doctors explain the therapy and how it can be used as a treatment modality.
Speaking to Sakal Times, Dr Mahesh Lakhe, Consultant, Infectious Diseases and Infection Control department at Columbia Asia Hospital in Pune explained that the liquid portion of the blood — which is 92 per cent water but also contains vital proteins such as albumin, gamma globulin and anti-hemophilic factor — obtained from a person who has fully recovered from COVID-19 is plasma.
Rakesh Maurya, Lead Scientist Redcliffe Life Sciences said that a novel treatment invented by a team of scientists from the European Medical Association, together with Redcliffe Lifesciences and Sapio Analytics, called Hyperion Plasma Treatment is proven to cure COVID-19 with higher effectiveness than conventional plasma treatment.
What is plasma treatment?
“It contains antibodies that may boost a person’s ability to fight the disease. Convalescent plasma donors have to confirm they had COVID-19 and have fully recovered. These antibodies are developed in a patient as part of the body’s natural immune response to a foreign pathogen like the novel coronavirus. These antibodies are highly specific to the invading pathogen and so, work to eliminate the novel coronavirus from the body,” said Dr Lakhe.
Dr Lakhe explained, “Once the patient has recovered, they can donate their blood so that their antibodies can be used to treat other patients. The donated blood is checked for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV or any other disease-causing agents. If safe, the plasma containing antibodies are extracted. It is then ingested into the body of a patient under treatment.”
He added that this immunity can be transferred by giving serum in sufficient amount to those at risk of infection. Depending on the antibody amount and composition, the protection conferred by the transferred immunoglobulin (antibodies) can last from weeks to months.
A ray of hope
Explaining about the study Dr Lakhe said, “Earlier in this year, two separate studies in China sparked optimism, each presenting the use of convalescent plasma in severely ill patients with COVID-19. One study, described positive results in five critically ill patients who had both COVID-19 and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). All five patients in the study recovered.”
“The other study, posted online quickly to help the medical community, described a sample of 10 patients with COVID-19 who had received convalescent plasma. But the authors of both studies also noted the patient cohorts were small and that some participants had also received other experimental drugs, such as antivirals, making it hard to tease out the precise effect of convalescent plasma,” he noted.
He added that it signified the need for additional research. “For instance, what’s the optimal dose of antibodies? At what point during a patient’s illness should treatment be given? Which patients will benefit? The only way to answer these questions will be through large, well-controlled clinical trials, such as those that ICMR is conducting in collaboration with several other hospitals and academic medical centres,” Dr Lakhe stated.
Hyperion Plasma Treatment
Meanwhile, Rakesh Maurya, Lead Scientist Redcliffe Life Sciences, explained that this treatment combines the widely accepted concept of plasma treatment with adjuvant negative ion therapy using a proprietary ionizer device. The treatment has already been applied in China and Germany with successful results, proving to be about ten times more effective than conventional plasma therapy, with a recovery rate of severe and acute patients being less than 48 hours.
“Approvals are being currently sought from ICMR and other authorities in order to start off clinical trials in India,” said Maurya.
He further said that the treatment methodology is such that
it can be administered on a range of patients with varying viral loads, using donors with varying levels of antibodies.
“The treatment is also combined with immune modulators of Phytoextracts and anti-influenza drugs,” added Maurya.
Risks involved in plasma therapy
(Based on the study by John Hopkins immunologists)
