the plasma of cured patients, a real hope for treatment

THE ESSENTIAL

• Serotherapy involves injecting the plasma of cured patients to transfer their antibodies to the sick
• The results of a study on this treatment in the management of Covid-19 are expected in early May

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What if, whatever the evolution of the epidemic, the month of May is bringing great hope against Covid-19? We can hope without naivety since it is at the very beginning of next month that the results of a study on the effectiveness of serotherapy in the treatment of patients victims of the coronavirus must be known.

And these results are awaited with as much impatience as the first trials of this therapy carried out on the first groups of 5 and 10 patients led to clinical signs of improvement in their state of health after about a week. . So what is this remedy that seems to work in a disease that we do not yet know how to treat, apart from the use of chloroquine, which is very controversial?

Passive immunity transfer

Serotherapy consists in collecting the plasma from the cured patients – which it is estimated that they then developed antibodies to the virus – to inject it into the patients, thereby achieving a transfer of passive immunity. Like a sort of treating vaccine inoculated directly into the blood.

“This therapy has been tested on two groups of patients in whom there were clinical signs of improvement after a few days, patients hospitalized in serious condition but who did not yet require resuscitation”, explained Dr Karine Lacombe, infectiologist, head of the infectious diseases department at St Antoine hospital in Paris, April 9 in the daily podcast of Why doctor moderated by Dr Jean-François Lemoine.

This is in fact to artificially reproduce, using the antibodies produced by the cured patients, the only tool which currently leads to an improvement in the condition and to the healing of patients with Covid-19, the effect of l ‘immunity. To guarantee the best efficacy, serotherapy requires having enough plasma from cured patients – which should not be a problem with Covid-19 given the number of people infected – and ensuring that the antibody titer in each pocket is large enough.

A technique used in other viral infections

This technique is well known and has been used in particular in the management of other viral infections such as chicungunya. The possible side effects are on the one hand an allergic reaction, as in any plasma transfusion, and possible damage to the lungs caused by an overload of these organs with plasma.

A study of 60 people, 30 receiving plasma injections from recovered Covid-19 patients and 30 receiving conventional care, is underway. The results of this study, called “Covidplasm” and respecting methodological standards, are expected, according to Dr. Karine Lacombe, by the first days of May at the latest. If its results are conclusive, the implementation of serotherapy to treat Covid-19 patients could be very rapid: there are many donors, the preparation of plasma bags requires only about a week and the laboratories may offer very quickly specific immunoglobins.

Below, the interview with Dr. Karine Lacombe by Dr. Jean-François Lemoine:

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