Cellular Therapy: Shafts of Light Emerging for COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented with debilitating respiratory consequences especially more pronounced in high risk individuals. Individuals with underlying systemic diseases are more prone and vulnerable to suffer severe consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. The pathophysiological changes identified cytokine storm mechanism for out setting the series of adverse clinical conditions. Thereby, associating it with high mortality rates. This warrants urgent consideration of divergent modalities such as the cellular therapy. Cellular therapy (CT) is a new medical paradigm wherein cellular material is administered to patients for therapeutic purposes. In this regard, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have yielded the most promising results among stromal vascular fraction (SVF); placental cells; natural killer (NK) cell and platelet lysate respectively. Following the administration of the CT as per preferred route, these play pivotal role in modifying the microenvironment of the lung tissue with their distinct sets of mechanism. Evidences have shown how their immunomodulatory action repairs and prevents lung injury which in turn improvise the compliance of lungs. In this review article we have discussed these emerging novel approaches and their target step serving as a ray of hope to combat severe form of COVID-19. Currently these aren't approved for preventing or treating COVID-19 cases, however clinical trials are afoot to dispense the utmost understanding in terms of efficacy and safety concerns.
Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/sci-2020-022). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
(2020 Stem Cell Investigation. All rights reserved.)