Presentation by the research group of Professor Lee Rae-seok from the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul
The first case of treatment of a patient with long-term novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, for which there was no adequate treatment method, has been reported.
After COVID-19 infection, a seriously ill patient suffering from pneumonia, in which the coronavirus was detected long ago despite the use of antiviral treatments, was successfully treated with an in-house developed cell therapy.
COVID-19 patients with weakened immunity have weakened humoral immunity caused by the production of antibodies, so even if antiviral treatment is given, it is not possible to prevent the replication and excretion of the virus. If the infection persists for a long time, it can lead to severe pneumonia and ultimately death.
Professor Lee Rae-seok’s research team from the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul announced the results of administering autologous virus-specific T-cell therapy to two patients who were infected with “SARS/ Coronavirus” for a long period of time. One of them was a 79-year-old patient being treated for blood cancer (lymphoma): despite being prescribed antiviral drugs for 3 months after COVID-19 infection, the virus was detected and chemotherapy was stopped at cause of severe pneumonia.
The research team used coronavirus-specific multi-antigen T-cell therapy produced by Lucas Bio (CEO Cho Seok-gu), a cell therapy company from the Catholic University of Korea. After collecting the patient’s autologous blood and stimulating it with three multiple antigens known as the major antigens of SARS and coronaviruses, a treatment was created with coronavirus antigen-specific T cells capable of responding to the mutations. The treatment was administered twice. To objectively evaluate clinical recovery, the World Health Organization (WHO) Corona Patient Evaluation Ranking Scale, symptom recovery measurement score, and pneumonia recovery degree were also confirmed using chest CT (computed tomography ).
As a result, all patients who had sustained a long-term infection were confirmed negative in the PCR (genetic amplification) test. Due to the coronavirus, symptoms such as cough, fever and shortness of breath have significantly disappeared and oxygen treatment has been stopped. In the CT scan of the chest, the ground glass-shaded nodules (a phenomenon that appears cloudy on the CT scan as if it were ground glass) disappeared, confirming that the severe pneumonia was completely cured.
Korea declared the COVID-19 pandemic in August last year, but the coronavirus disease is still ongoing. Even if a healthy adult becomes infected, the immune response of T cells in the immune system suppresses the proliferation of the virus and helps eliminate it, but in immunocompromised people the immune system does not function properly. Antiviral drugs can reduce the rate of death and severe disease, but patients with weakened immunity for various reasons, such as cancer treatment, continue to replicate and shed the virus even if they are given antiviral treatments.
Professor Lee said: “This is the first success in Korea in administering cell therapy to severely immunocompromised patients for whom there was no treatment method available. After checking how much this increased, we confirmed that it increased gradually after 7 days “. of administration and was directly related to the clinical recovery index”. Professor Lee said: “Through further analysis, we will uncover the immunological mechanism and expand its application to the treatment of severe respiratory viral infections.”
The research team is recruiting patients with long-term COVID-19 infection for further clinical research.
Reporter Hong Eun-sim hongeunsim@donga.com
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