Clinical study of mesenchymal stem cell treating acute respiratory distress syndrome induced by epidemic Influenza A (H7N9) infection, a hint for COVID-19 treatment

Chen, Jiajia; Hu, Chenxia; Chen, Lijun; Tang, Lingling; Zhu, Yixin; Xu, Xiaowei; Chen, Lu; Gao, Hainv; Lu, Xiaoqing; Yu, Liang; Dai, Xiahong; Xiang, Charlie; Li, Lanjuan

H7N9 viruses quickly spread between mammalian hosts, and it carried out the risk of human-to-human transmission after outbreak in 2013. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), lung failure, and fulminant pneumonia are major lung diseases in H7N9 patients. Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is a promising choice for treating virus-induced pneumonia, and was needed to treat H7N9 induced ARDS at the time. MSCs transplant into patients with H7N9 induced ARDS were conducted in a single center and open-label clinical trial. Based on the principle of voluntariness and informed consent, 44 patients with H7N9 induced ARDS were included as a control group while 17 patients with H7N9 induced ARDS were served as an experimental group with allogeneic menstrual blood-derived MSC. Notably, MSC transplantation significantly lower the mortality compared with in control group (17.6% died in MSC group vs 54.5% died in control group). Furthermore, MSC transplantation did not result in harmful effects in human body within the 5 year follow up period with 4 patients. Collectively, these results suggest that MSCs significantly improve survival rate of H7N9 induced ARDS and provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of H7N9 induced ARDS in both preclinical research and clinical studies. Because H7N9 and the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) share similar complications (such as ARDS and lung failure) and corresponding multi-organ dysfunction, MSC-based therapy could be a possible alternative for treating COVID-19.