Tel Aviv hospital cures 29 out of 30 COVID-19 patients in days, says

Tel Aviv hospital cures 29 out of 30 COVID-19 patients in days, says

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Twenty-nine of the 30 moderate to severe COVID-19 patients who received treatment developed by Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) as part of a Phase I study recovered from the disease and were discharged from the hospital in three to five days, the hospital said Friday.

The 30th patient also recovered, but it took longer.

The patients received the EXO-CD24 COVID-19 treatment from Prof. Nadir Arber, which is based on exosomes enriched with CD24 and is intended to combat the cytokine storm that is associated with many of the deaths of COVID-19 in the world.

A cytokine storm occurs when the immune system basically kicks in excess and starts attacking healthy cells. Exosomes are responsible for cell-to-cell communication. In this case, the exosomes deliver the CD24 protein to the lungs, which helps to calm the immune system.

“This protein is located on the surface of cells and has a well-known and important role in regulating the immune system,” explained Dr. Shiran Shapira, who works in Arber’s laboratory.

Arber has been researching exosomes for nearly two decades. He said it took about six months from the time the idea of ​​using this treatment in the battle against COVID-19 was raised until it was first tested on humans.

The treatment is inhaled once a day for a few minutes for five days. It directly targets the lungs, the location of the storm, unlike other treatments that could be administered systemically and therefore cause serious side effects, explained Arber.

Most patients who received EXO-CD24 showed significant improvement in two days.

The hospital called on the Ministry of Health to proceed with further clinical trials. Once approved, treatment can be tried on additional patients.Prof. Nadir Arber (Credit: Ichilov Hospital)Prof. Nadir Arber (Credit: Ichilov Hospital)

“This is an innovative treatment that can be produced quickly and efficiently at low cost,” explained Arber. “Even if vaccines do what they should, and even if no new mutations are produced, still, in one way or another, the coronavirus will remain with us.”

The head of Suourasky, Prof. Ronni Gamzu hailed the treatment as “innovative and sophisticated” and said that the results of the Phase I trial “give us all an expression of confidence in the method”. He added that he would personally help Arber obtain the necessary approvals from the Ministry of Health to carry out his research.
Gazmu served as Israel’s coronavirus commissioner from August to November 2020. He said the international understanding is that, along with vaccines “it is especially important to develop drugs to treat the disease.” I am proud that Ichilov … may be bringing a blue and white solution to a terrible global pandemic, ”he concluded.

This is not the first Israeli drug to show promise in the treatment of COVID-19.

Last year, Hadassah-University Medical Center reported similar results from the use of the drug Allocetra, which was developed by the Enlivex Company based on research by a Hadassah doctor, Prof. Dror Mevorach. Similar to EXO-CD24, Allocetra is intended to treat the immune system overreaction. In addition, Pluristem Therapeutics in Israel has been investigating the use of its PLX-PAD cell therapy derived from the placenta, which the company said hopes to play a significant role in mitigating the damaging effects of COVID-19 tissues in the lungs. The company is now also involved in clinical trials.

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