Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

Patients who meet inclusion criteria will be randomized into treatment vs control group. Treatment groups will undergo Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and compared to the control group.

Why is the research needed? The pandemic known as COVID-19 is now spreading across the world with currently (April 10, 2020) more than 1 115 530 active cases and 96 791 deaths. In most affected countries the current goal is to 'flatten the curve' of the epidemic since there is no health care system that is able to treat an extremely high volume of patients all at once. There is a need for immediately applicable treatments for the patients at highest risk, which gains time until targeted therapies become available. A key feature in the pathomechanism of the disease is that the virus elicits an immunological over-reaction in the human body termed 'cytokine storm'. In susceptible patients this hyper-inflammation itself is a significant burden and may even inhibit the body to generate antibodies against the virus in adequate quantities. Therefore, identifying the subset of patients with excess cytokine response and supplementing them with convalescent plasma from recovered donors may be a life-saving treatment option. What is our study about? In light of recent promising data on plasma therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 and other viral epidemics, there is a need for better understanding the cytokine response to the virus in order to better characterize the target population for convalescent plasma therapy. Our hypothesis is that convalescent plasma transfusion from healthy donors who recovered from SARS CoV-2 is able to reduce the cytokine storm in addition to replenish the patient's own antibodies in the acutely infected phase of the disease. A plasmapheresis donation of 400ml will be performed in subjects who recovered from COVID-19 and who are otherwise eligible for plasma donation. The sample will be tested for anti-SARS CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers and those that reach the level of 1:320 will be processed for transfusion at the Hungarian National Transfusion Service. Recipients will be COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization regardless of the severity of the disease or other co-morbidities. A blood-type matched transfusion of 200 ml convalescent plasma will be infused in a single sitting through an iv. infusion of 4 hours. Recipients will be followed up at days 1, 3,7,12, 17, 28 for clinical symptoms, antibody levels and cytokine response.

Immunotherapy based on Adoptive Cellular Transfer (ACT) uses several types of immune cells, including dendritic cells, cytotoxic T lymphocytes, lymphokine-activated killer cells, and NK cells. NK cell-based immunotherapies are an attractive approach for treating diseases because of their characteristic recognition and killing mechanisms; they are involved in the early defense against infectious pathogens and against MHC class-I-negative or -low-expressing targets without the requirement for prior immune sensitization of the host and are able to lyse target through the release of perforin and granzymes and using antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity pathways mediated by Fc receptor for IgG (CD16). The aim of this project is to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of allogeneic NK cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of healthy donors in patients infected with COVID-19 collected by apheresis. This allows us to collect cGMP PBMCs and immunomagnetic remove several types of undesirable cells including B, T and CD33+ cells with enrichment of NK cells that will be expanded in bioreactors with GMP culture media (AIM-V) supplemented with human AB serum and GMP grade IL-2, and IL-15. After quality control verification the final NK cell product will be resuspended in 300 mL saline solution for intravenous infusion. Initially, we will enroll in this study ten COVID-19 infected adult patients with moderate symptoms (NEWS 2 scale score>4). Consent forms will be signed by the patient before the therapy. Patients will be treated with three different infusions of NK cells 48 h apart with 1, 10, and 20 million cells/kg body weight. We will follow the patients for any adverse effect, clinical response and immune effects by flow cytometry including markers for NK cells expressing different markers (CD158b, NKG2A, and IFN-y). We anticipated that the release of IFN-y by exogenous NK cells could attract other immune cell populations to boost the immune response against COVID-19.

This is phase II study to assess the efficacy of NestaCell® (mesenchymal stem cell) to treat severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

This study aim to evaluate the immune response of negative patients during a COVID-19 outbreak. Patients are serially tested with a VivaDiag ™ COVID-19 lgM / IgG Rapid Test to evaluate the immune response in negative patients and the reliability of the test in those patients who develop clinical signs of COVID-19 during the trial.

Evaluation of novel coronavirus induced severe pneumonia by dental pulp mesenchymal stem cells

In December 2019, a novel coronavirus infectious disease characterized by acute respiratory impairment due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) broke out in Wuhan city of Hubei province in China. So far no specific antiviral therapy can be available for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although symptomatic and supportive care, even with mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), are strongly recommended for severe infected individuals, those with advancing age and co-morbidities such as diabetes and heart disease remain to be at high risk for adverse outcomes. This pilot clinical trial will be performed to explore the safety and efficiency of aerosol inhalation of the exosomes derived from allogenic adipose mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs-Exo) in severe patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP).

The novel coronavirus pneumonia is a kind of new emerging respiratory infectious disease, characterized by fever, dry cough, and chest tightness, and caused by the infection of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). In severe cases, there will be rapid respiratory system failure. The novel coronavirus pneumonia is extremely contagious and the disease progresses rapidly. It has become a urgent and serious public health event that threatens human life and health globally. Among them, severe pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus is characterized by extensive acute inflammation of the lungs and the patient is critically ill. At present, there is no effective treatment in clinical practice.Most of them should receive supportive care to help relieve symptoms. For severe cases, treatment should include care to support vital organ functions. This clinical trial is to inspect the safety and efficiency of Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells (UC-MSCs) therapy for severe pneumonia patients infected with 2019-nCoV.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading worldwide and has become a public health emergency of major international concern. Currently, no specific drugs or vaccines are available. For severe cases, it was found that aberrant pathogenic T cells and inflammatory monocytes are rapidly activated and then producing a large number of cytokines and inducing an inflammatory storm.Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to possess a comprehensive powerful immunomodulatory function. This study aims to investigate the safety and efficacy of intravenous infusion of mesenchymal stem cells in severe patients with COVID-19.

Phase III Placebo-controlled adaptive multi-centre randomized controlled trial Interventional (Clinical Trial). The study will include nine hundred healthcare workers in the isolation hospitals for COVID-19 cases; they will be randomly assigned to receive either BCG vaccine or normal saline.