TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – MARCH 20: Israeli Fire Department crew pull a hose with disinfectants as they sanitize the entrance to Tel Aviv’s Hospital Emergency Department on March 20, 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Number of coronavirus in Israel continues to jump, after over 200 new cases have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images) The Israeli medical company Pluristem Therapeutics announced on April 7 that its cell therapy treatment has been successful in its preliminary trials on patients who are severely ill with coronavirus.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the treatment uses placental expanded cells (PLX) to scale back an overactive immune system response that results in pneumonia. The PLX treatment was used on seven patients who were suffering from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Six of those patients have completed seven days of treatment; four of those patients saw improvement in their conditions, one remains stable and another’s condition worsened.
Additionally, three of the patients with improved conditions are almost at the point where they no longer need to be on a ventilator.
“It seems to be like a perfect fit,” Pluristem CEO and President Yaky Yanay told the medical news website BioWorld. “We are very confident in the safety profile of the product.”
Yanay added that the firm hopes to move toward clinical trials in the United States and Europe soon.
As of this writing, there are 9,404 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Israel and 73 deaths, including a 37-year-old with several underlying conditions. He is the youngest Israeli to have died from the virus thus far.
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