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World J Clin Cases. Dec 26, 2021; 9(36): 11148-11155
Published online Dec 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i36.11148
Stem cell therapy: A promising treatment for COVID-19
Zhi-Xue Zheng
Zhi-Xue Zheng, Department of General Surgery, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing 100035, China
Author contributions: Zheng ZX contributed to writing the manuscript, drafting conception and design.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declared there are no conflicts of interest to this work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Zhi-Xue Zheng, MD, Doctor, Surgeon, Surgical Oncologist, Department of General Surgery, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, No. 31 Xinjiekou East Street, Beijing 100035, China. pollitzheng@sina.com
Received: March 26, 2021
Peer-review started: March 26, 2021
First decision: May 12, 2021
Revised: May 12, 2021
Accepted: August 23, 2021
Article in press: August 23, 2021
Published online: December 26, 2021
Processing time: 272 Days and 0.2 Hours
Abstract

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a global pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus and has a glycosylated spike (S) protein used for genome encoding. COVID-19 can lead to a cytokine storm and patients usually have early respiratory signs and further secondary infections, which can be fatal. COVID-19 has entered an emergency phase, but there are still no specific effective drugs for this disease. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stromal cells, which cause antiapoptosis and can repair damaged epithelial cells. Many clinical trials have proved that MSC therapy could be a potential feasible therapy for COVID-19 patients, especially those with acute respiratory distress syndrome, without serious adverse events or toxicities. However, more studies are needed in the future, in order to confirm the effect of this therapy.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Mesenchymal stem cells; Pandemic; Stem cell therapy

Core tip: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic and entered an emergency phase. However, there are still no specific effective drugs for the COVID-19. Many previous studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cell transplantation is a promising choice for COVID-19-infected patients, and further studies need to be done in the future.