COVID-19
COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus is an ongoing pandemic representing a big challenge to the modern society. One of the prognostic factors correlating with the severity of the disease is lymphopenia, the decrease in concentration of lymphocytes in blood. Lymphopenia is observed not only during severe COVID-19 disease, but also during many chronic viral infections (HIV, HCV), as well as during several forms of cancer.
Treatment with ALECSAT cells in glioblastoma patients characterized by severe lymphopenia led to restoration of lymphocyte numbers after the injection of the therapeutic cells. Therefore, the hypothesis is that a pilot clinical study with T helper cells generated with allogeneic dendritic cells for treatment of COVID-19 patients will increase severely ill patients’ chance to survive. A patent for this treatment has been filed.