For the first time in UAE, the clinical trial for the new treatment of this Covid-19 is going on using the stem cell as per the report by Khaleejtimes, as Dr Fatima Al Kaabi, Head Haematology and Oncology of Sheikh Khalifa Medical City are working on it. She said it’s a national achievement and the breakthrough by the Abu Dhabi Cell Centre.

In the press conference, she stated that “We are utilised all our scientific potential to combat with this world pandemic disease coronavirus and are proud to develop this new treatment that is undergoing clinical trial for the first time in UAE and it’s a national achievement for us. This treatment is supportive but it doesn’t provide an entire cure but helps the patient overcome the symptoms caused by the coronavirus but doesn’t kill it.”

Furthermore, she added “We are about to conduct the collection of data for further research and experiment and compare them with the patient who has not received the treatment. With the data compared on the patients who have received the cure and those who haven’t will sure our next step to be more practical and efficient.”

So what exactly this stem cell treatment?

As per Dr Fatima, the stem cell exist in the human body with similar characteristics, one that transforms a different kind of cells, reproduce limitlessly and producing more similar stem cells. When we isolate one of the primitive stem cells, it is called embryonic stem cells, which is believed by the researchers to have renewing potential. It can renew the damage cells and adjust the inflammation caused by the Coronavirus in the lung tissue and contribute to auto-renew damage cells. The biggest advantage of using this therapy is that their collection doesn’t require a surgical operation and with the help of the blood sample and injecting in the lungs of the patient without the surgical intervention.

This whole process is known as Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy (MSC) and is currently became a promising cure to an incurable disease. Despite the significant development of this stem-cell-based therapy field, immunogenicity, limited cell source and ethical issue as the main limitations of this therapeutic approach has not been solved yet. MSC has attracted due to source potential, a high proliferation rate and low invasive procedure and are free from ethical issues. There is much superiority in using the MSC therapy in comparison with other treatments that include it can be easily accessible and can be isolated from the various tissue such as bone marrow and adipose tissues including the umbilical cord, dental pulp, menstrual blood and fetal liver.

MSC can easily expand the clinical volume in a suitable period and can be stored for repetitive therapeutic usages. The clinical trials of MSC, so far haven’t shown adverse reactions to allogeneic but the effectiveness of this therapy has documented in several clinical trials. In COVID-19 patients, the immune system produces large amounts of inflammatory factors, causing a cytokine storm including, in an overproduction of immune cells and cytokines. The MSC therapy can prevent the storm release of cytokines by the immune system and promote endogenous repair by reparative properties of the stem cells.