University of Pittsburgh researchers are collaborating with other universities for a clinical trial testing convalescent plasma in the treatment of covid-19.

The group, which includes scientists from Michigan Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina and Stanford Medicine, were awarded more than $7 million from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

Convalescent plasma, taken from the blood of donors who have recovered from covid-19, contains antibodies that can bind to and neutralize the coronavirus that causes covid-19. Treatment with convalescent plasma is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in hospitalized patients. It’s also been used to treat other diseases over the last 100 years or so, including the 1918 flu and Ebola.

“It’s a really old and established therapy, but we don’t know how well it works in covid-19,” said Dr. Clifton Callaway, executive vice chair of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

In this new clinical trial, the plasma will be tested in patients who are relatively less symptomatic. The goal is to prevent patients from getting so sick they need to be hospitalized, Callaway said.

“If you get a transfusion of that plasma early, shortly after you develop symptoms of covid-19, it could reduce your risk of being more severely ill,” he said.

The trial started last week at a hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich. Callaway said the trial is being introduced first in areas with a greater concentration of coronavirus cases, and places where hospitals are closer to becoming overwhelmed. The research network conducting the trial is partnering with 50 hospitals across the country, Callaway said.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been nearly 18 million cases of the virus and more than 686,000 deaths worldwide. In Allegheny County, more than 8,000 cases had been reported as of Monday since March, and there are 135 patients currently hospitalized, according to the state’s covid-19 dashboard. Many hospitalizations and deaths worldwide have occurred among older patients and those with underlying health issues.

Those involved with the trial said they will recruit patients from these at-risk groups early on in their illness, with the understanding that convalescent plasma will slow the virus in its tracks and prevent the worst of its damage. To be eligible to participate, Callaway said, patients will need to be over the age of 50 and have some underlying health issue.

“What we want to find out is whether this plasma is effective enough to keep these at-risk patients from progressing to a point where they need hospitalization,” Simone Glynee, chief of NHLBI’s Blood Epidemiology and Clinical Therapeutics branch, said in a statement.

Callaway said experts at Pitt helped design the trial and Pitt Med School’s Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine will function as a “biorepository.” The researchers will receive blood samples from patients in the trial and study their immune response. Pitt also will manage other testing sites as they come online and may eventually participate in the testing themselves, Callaway said.

The trial is an important step for developing new treatments for the virus, he said, especially as the world waits for a successful vaccine to be ready.

“Until we have that and people are getting sick, we need ways to rescue them.,” Callaway said. “This will be one more tool in our tool kit to try to prevent the worst consequences to this.”

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