Researchers are working on a new avenue to fight the coronavirus. A clinical trial consisting in transfusing blood plasma from people recovered from Covid-19 to "patients in acute phase of the disease" begins Tuesday in France, announced on Saturday the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), l 'French Blood Establishment (EFS) and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). At the microphone of Europe 1, Doctor Jimmy Mohamed returns to this experiment. "This could be a lead for the most serious patients," he explains.
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"Plasma is the liquid part of the blood that contains more than a hundred proteins such as albumin, but also immunoglobulins, which are essential in the fight against infectious agents," he explains. The researchers want to focus on the plasma of patients who have recovered from the coronavirus, "and therefore made antibodies naturally".
"See if patients develop less severe forms"
"We will take the plasma, we will analyze it, centrifuge it a little and re-inject it into patients who have developed the coronavirus to see if these patients develop less severe forms, if they tolerate this plasma well", continues Jimmy Mohamed. And to conclude: "This could be a lead for the most serious patients who are in intensive care, and who have an acute respiratory distress syndrome. Because at this stage, we have no curative treatment, the hope of a the drug is gradually getting away, while for the vaccine, we will have to wait a little longer. "
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The clinical trial will count 60 patients in Parisian hospitals, of which "half will benefit from the plasma-convalescent supply", indicated on Saturday the establishments responsible for conducting it. "An initial evaluation may be made two to three weeks after the start of the clinical trial", which may be extended depending on the results.