Doctors are turning to a 100-year-old blood therapy in hopes of treating COVID-19 patients

Doctors are working to revive an ancient medical treatment that involves drawing blood from patients who have survived an infection and injecting into sick ones, in the struggle to stem the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"What we're hoping to do is begin to harvest plasma perhaps as early as next week, or even later this weekend, and administer it on a compassionate use basis to candidates [and] patients," Dr. Michael Joyner, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic and member of the doctors organizing the effort, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.

"When people get infected, they develop antibodies to fight the infection and ultimately, if they survive, those antibodies kill the bugs," he explained.

The blood plasma — the liquid component of blood that carries blood cells, enzymes and the antibodies — can then be used to develop a serum that can then be administered to other people with the same infection, or potentially people at risk of infection, to help prevent or treat the disease.

The treatment, known as convalescent plasma, has been used since the early 20th century. According to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal by microbiologist Dr. Arturo Casadevall, "this approach was used to stem outbreaks of measles, polio and mumps," and has been used in modern settings to fight rabies and hepatitis B.

According to a 2014 study by the World Health Organization, it's also been used to treat patients infected with the Ebola virus.

Joyner stressed that the proposed technique has not yet been tested on anyone with COVID-19. Potential donors, he explained, must be symptom-free for 14 days, and pass all the normal blood donor screening requirements to qualify.

According to Joyner, there are three potential case scenarios for using the plasma treatment:

• Frontline health-care workers who are in close proximity with COVID-19 patients.
• Patients who have been hospitalized, but are not sick enough to be in an intensive care unit.
• Patients in ICU who are very sick, but with a chance of recovery.

Joyner said that some preliminary Chinese research into plasma therapy for COVID-19 has shown positive results.

He added, however, that while plasma treatment itself is a century-old technique, the current research is being done in an unprecedented context.

"If you're doing a cancer trial ... or a cardiovascular trial, you have 18 months or so to really kind of get everything set up," he said.

"But we've had to compress an 18-month timeframe into 18 days. And so hopefully we'll be ready to begin to roll next week."

Canadian Blood Services confirmed they're working with Health Canada, Quebec's blood agency and international partners to develop a convalescent plasma treatment for the novel coronavirus, according to Ipolitics.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved experimental use of convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus patients "on an emergency basis."

New York state has been the hardest hit in the U.S., by COVID-19, with a total of 44,635 cases and 519 deaths as of Friday.

'This is our best shot on goal'

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist at the University Health Network, characterized the data from the research he's seen so far as "poor to moderate."

But he said the convalescent plasma is still worth exploring while the work to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 remains months to over a year away.

"Once we have a vaccine, I think we'll be in much better shape because we can clearly produce this en masse, and protect populations from getting this infection. So I think that's clearly the gold standard — the home run, the Stanley Cup, a long term goal that we should all be really vying for," he said.

"In terms of treatment and prevention, I think looking at serum as a potential option is certainly a smart approach. I would never cross that off the list."

Joyner likened the plasma project to a craft brewery slowly building up its beer production to match that of a national level.

"What we're trying to do is scale this up nationally, with the Red Cross and others, so we can then get kind of a nationwide distribution of a standard, relatively standard product," he said.

"But this is our best shot on goal right now … that will buy time for these other products to come online, and then for the biotech and vaccine cavalry to arrive."

Written by Jonathan Ore. Interview with Michael Joyner produced by Yamri Taddese. To hear more, download the podcast.