Limited Benefits – UNM Researchers Find Flaws in Convalescent Therapy for COVID-19

Hospitals around the world are treating COVID-19 patients with plasma drawn from people who have recovered from the infections in hopes that their antibodies will bind to and neutralize the virus.

But in a recent study University of New Mexico researchers identify potentially serious shortcomings in the use of so-called “convalescent” plasma, reporting that none of 12 patients at UNM Hospital who received the treatment appeared to benefit from it.

“We stopped after we enrolled 13 patients [in the study] after we got some of the data back showing that most of the convalescent plasma had little to no neutralizing antibodies in it and it actually didn’t help them improve their antibody levels,” said Michelle Harkins, MD, division chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine.

The paper, accepted online this week by the Journal of Infectious Diseases, reflects a unique collaboration between her division, the Division of Infectious Diseases and the UNM Center for Global Health, Harkins said.

Read the full story from University of New Mexico here.