Image Credit: University of Minnesota
As doctors continue to better understand how to treat some of the most severe cases of COVID-19, researchers are reviewing their scientific “toolkit” to see whether therapies for other diseases could also help treat patients with COVID-19.
Fate Therapeutics
One example of this is a treatment developed by Fate Therapeutics called FT516, which received support in its early stages from a Late Stage Preclinical grant awarded by CIRM.
FT516 is made using induced pluripotent stem cells. Researchers create them by reprogramming skin or blood cells. These stem cells can become any cell type. For FT516, researchers turn them into natural killer (NK) cells. NK cells are a type of white blood cell that helps fight viral infections.
NK cells
Before the COVID‑19 pandemic, researchers tested FT516 in a clinical trial for acute myeloid leukemia and B‑cell lymphoma.
NK cells naturally combat viruses. Researchers believe FT516 may help reduce coronavirus replication in COVID‑19 patients. Fate Therapeutics, in partnership with the University of Minnesota, treated its first COVID‑19 patient with FT516 in a new clinical trial.
In a news release, Dr. Joshua Rhein, lead physician for the trial, explained:
“The research community has mobilized to meet the unique challenges of COVID‑19. Treatment options remain limited, and NK cells play an important role in responding to SARS‑CoV‑2. In infected patients, these cells are often depleted. Our intent is to replenish NK cells, restore immune function, and directly target the virus.”
In response to the pandemic, CIRM provided $5 million in emergency funding for three COVID‑19 clinical trials:
• A convalescent plasma study led by Dr. John Zaia at City of Hope
• A treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome led by Dr. Michael Matthay at UCSF
• A study using NK cells to treat COVID‑19 patients, led by Dr. Xiaokui Zhang at Celularity Inc.
Visit our dashboard page to learn more about these clinical projects.
NK cell is a component of immune cells which are strong and potent to inhibit virus infection. However, many viruses have evolve mechanisms to thwart NK cells activities. At an early stage of virus infection, NK cells respond to inflammatory signals, resulting in proliferation, cytokines production and cytolytic activity that can reduce virus loads. The antiviral response of NK cells play role by mediating with inflammatory milieu to guide other innate immune cells such as T cells, dendretic cells, B cells and other cell types for adoptive immune response during viral infection. Clinical investigation revealed that majority of patients infected with Covid-19 showed the suppression of immunity of CD-8 T cells, CD-4 T cells and NK cells. Recently, the outbreak of Covid-19 in Europe and USA have been found to be related to mutated strain of G618D, which has much high infection rate than usual. Patients with high viral loads confronted with body immune response tend to easily induce cytokines storm which is harmful to functioning organs. To date, it is highly recommended to initiate with drugs treatment to drastically kill and weaken the potential of viral infection before introducing F516-NK cell therapy to completely eradicate the viral loads in the body. .