Review Article
Year: 2020 | Month: October-December | Volume: 5 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 299-308
Review on COVID-19 Treatment: Convalescent Plasma (CCP) Therapy
Asha.J1, Nikil.M.K2, Davood.U.B3, Ranjan Mukharjee4
1Senior Resident, Department of Transfusion Medicine, T.D. Government Medical College, Alappuzha, Kerala, India, Pincode: 688005.
2Consultant Chest Physician, E.S.I Hospital, Feroke, Calicut, Kerala, India, Pincode: 673631.
3Junior Resident, Department of Transfusion Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, India, Pincode: 249203.
4Junior Resident, Department of Transfusion Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, India, Pincode: 249203.
Corresponding Author: Asha.J
ABSTRACT
The corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic is evolving into a global threatening worldwide and no effectively proven therapeutic agents or vaccines for COVID-19 are available as of now. Historically convalescent plasma has been used as an empirical treatment for SARS-CoV, H1N1 influenza, H5N1 avian influenza etc. Convalescent plasma obtained from the recovered corona virus patients will be having these antibodies which can be utilized for passive immunization therapy against SARS-CoV-2 antigen. The plasma can be obtained either through plasmapheresis or by separation from the whole blood. The supposed mechanism of action by which passive antibody therapy provides protection against SARS-CoV-2 is viral neutralization, Phagocytosis or antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Use of COVID-19 convalescent sera are either prophylaxis of infection or treatment of disease. But there are known and theoretical Risks of passive administration of convalescent sera also. There are certain national guidelines for collection of blood and plasma from healthy volunteer donors which need to be followed by all blood banks. COVID-19 convalescent plasma donation guidelines include different steps like donor search, ABO and Rh (D) blood type compatibility, eligibility criteria for the COVID-19 convalescent plasma donor, pre-donation health screening and testing, plasmapheresis procedure, storage of the CCP product, receiving of cross-match request and patient’s sample and thawing and cross-matching the CCP unit. Studies on CCP with the limited sample size and study design preclude a definitive statement about the potential effectiveness of this treatment, and these observations require evaluation in clinical trials.
Keywords: corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), COVID-19, Covid convalescent plasma (CCP), passive immunization therapy, plasmapheresis, convalescent plasma therapy (CPT).