Treatment of Severe COVID-19 Patients Using Secretome of Hypoxia-Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Indonesia

The devastating effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS COV-2) infection is caused by a robust cytokine storm that leads to lung tissue damage. Several studies reported a correlation between disease severity and the release of excessive proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-6, IL-1, IFN-Υ, IFN-Υ-induced protein 10 (IP10), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), macrophage inflammatory protein-1a (MIP-1a), and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF). This finding was confirmed by the high level of plasma cytokines found in most severe COVID-19 patients associated with extensive lung damage. Therefore, finding an effective therapeutic option to control the devastating cytokine storm of COVID-19 and regenerate the damaged lung is crucial.

Previous studies reported that the hypoxic condition of MSCs could enhance the release of their active soluble molecules known as Secretome-MSCs (S-MSCs), such as IL-10 and TGF-β that useful in alleviating inflammation. Moreover, they could also increase the expression of growth factors such as VEGF and PDGF that accelerate lung injury improvement. These active molecules could potentially serve as a biological therapeutic agent for treating the severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. According to recent studies, we successfully isolated the S-MSCs from their culture medium using tangential flow filtration (TFF) strategy with several molecular weight cut-off category. This study investigated the clinical outcomes of severe COVID-19 patients with several comorbidities treated with S-MSCs in Indonesia.