Besides trying and testing various antiviral drugs like Remdesivir and antimalarial drugs like chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, scientists have been trying to use convalescent blood plasma therapy, collecting antibodies from people who have recovered from the virus and giving them to patients as passive immunity, to help patients recover faster. The idea is that when the antibodies are given, they will bind to and destroy the virus faster than if the patients were to develop their own antibodies. A proposal submitted by a team at Johns Hopkins elucidate that this therapy is the only one that can provide immediate immunity. For passive antibody therapy to be effective, it will probably have to be given during the initial immune response. The efficacy of passive immunization has been previously seen in other viral outbreaks like H1N1 influenza pandemic, measles and mumps. When Influenza patients had been treated with convalescent sera, they had lower death rates and reduced inflammation.
Another team at Vanderbilt is also working on developing a passive therapy. They have identified a large number of antibodies that can potentially be used to protect people against COVID-19. The center is partnering with various pharmaceutical companies to produce these antibodies.
Convalescent blood plasma therapy can be used to prevent infection in the first place or to treat the infection. However, it has some risks as well. Among the known risks are transfer of infectious agents and possible immune reaction to the serum constituents.
By: Sanya Bansal