Could T cell therapy treat patients with COVID-19?
Miltenyi Biotec (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany) and a number of university hospitals have established a stem cell network in a bid to employ T cell therapy in the treatment of COVID-19.
Worldwide, the pharmaceutical industry has been collaborating to establish treatments for patients suffering with COVID-19. The focus of the body’s immune response thus far has focused on the production of antibodies; however, the challenge of treatment has made its way to the cell and gene therapy landscape. Novel cell therapy approaches have centered around transferring immune cells, known as T cells, from recovered patients into newly infected patients. The approach aims to reduce length and severity of disease, as well as provide a vision of therapeutic approaches for long-term pandemic management.
Clinical trials for the T cell therapy have shown promising results, encouraging the establishment of a cell therapy network in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) to implement this treatment of COVID-19 and future viral pandemics. To streamline the research process and make the therapies readily available for patient access, Miltenyi Biotec has joined forces with University Hospital Cologne and six other university hospitals including: Aachen, Bochum, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Essen and Münster (all located in Germany). The network aims to maintain fluid communication between university hospitals, to rapidly cooperate and innovate in the event of future outbreaks.
In a pioneering step, the University Hospital of Cologne is conducting a study to discover if immune cells from recovering donors can be used to safely treat patients with COVID-19. Approximately six to twelve patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease will partake in the study to examine the efficacy of this treatment. The SARS-CoV2-specific T cells are provided by an established donor database at the Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Transplant Engineering at the Hannover Medical School (Hanover, Germany).
Miltenyi Biotec will equip the university hospitals with the ability to conduct treatments with virus-specific T cells, utilizing their CliniMACS Prodigy®, a unique device with the capacity to automatically manufacture cell products for routine clinical use. The device provides fully automated integrated solutions for cell-processing workflows, including cell separation, from cell culture to the creation of the final product. With the power of advanced manufacturing technology, shared expertise and industry-wide collaboration, the implementation of T cells to treat COVID-19 shows promise for the future of disease therapy.
