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Using cells from people who have suffered from Covid-19, a team of Spanish researchers has developed a treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection based on lymphocytes or T cells. It is treated, he explains Mary Liz Pacielloof the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid, of a therapy that uses the cells of these donors that, once manipulated in the laboratory, are capable of neutralizar in vitro el coronavirus.
It is, says this researcher, a first step for the use of this cell therapy with SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells for the treatment against Covid-19, “an alternative that would be especially useful, in people with their immune system weaker, such as transplant patients or those receiving cancer treatment.
Research published in the journal “Biomedicines” suggests that the population of lymphocytes from convalescent patients contains T cells specific for SARS-CoV-2 that can be purified, enriched and used as therapy, thanks to a perfected technology for obtaining isolated cells of the blood of patients already recovered from Covid-19. “The goal is that you are new cells produce gamma interferon and thus generate a cellular response against the coronavirus,” he says.
At the moment, the team in which researchers from the National Microbiology Center of the Carlos III Health Institute have participated is already preparing the documentation to request a phase I trial in patients with this advanced therapy drug.
If the results are positive, in which this researcher is convinced, there would be “a technology capable of producing large quantities of these specific lymphocytes to generate cell immunity in patients with a great advantage over other potions». And among its advantages is that “it is completely harmless to the patient,” she highlights.
For this, he clarifies, a room is needed GMPthat is, clean rooms that meet the necessary requirements for the manufacture of medicines, such as the CNM.
Specifically, explains Paciello, the samples obtained are stimulated with SARS-CoV-2-specific peptides against the M protein (virus membrane protein) and then treated in an automated T cell isolation process.
The researchers explain that the stimulation with peptides of the protein M was higher than that obtained with peptides of protein S (which is the most used in most studies published to date). The result makes it possible to obtain immune cells that have shown effectiveness in eliminating cells that mimic virus infection in vitro.
In addition, Paciello points out, samples from convalescent Covid-19 patients obtained before and after vaccination have been used and thus it has been seen that the number of cells obtained is greater in vaccinated donors, in whom a greater cytotoxic activity and presence of CD8+ IFNγ T cells are observed, with a greater capacity to combat a SARS-CoV-2 infection generated invitro.
Therefore, he states, “vaccinated people convalescing from Covid-19 would be the ideal donors” to obtain these populations of cells with cytotoxic capacity.
Previous research carried out on other diseases using this method has already shown the effectiveness of the use of isolated and enriched functional T cells in other pathologies.
These findings could also have applications in the study of other infectious diseases caused by other viruses such as measles, hepatitis C, HIV, Epstein Bar, JC and BK.
The study is part of a collaboration between the CNM and the Hospital October 12 of Madrid, and has been led by researchers Pilar Perez Romeroof the ISCIII, and Mary Liz Pacielloof the said hospital.
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