‘EXO-CD24 can treat severe coronavirus infections and save many lives’

February 20, Kathmandu: As the world is putting all its efforts into the treatment and containment of the coronavirus infection, scientists in Israel have come up with a new measure to treat even the severe cases of the Covid-19.

“The EXO-CD24 treatment, which delivers CD24-enriched exosomes directly to the targeted area (lungs) via a nasal spray, has been found to suppress the cytokine storm. Cytokine storm causes the most severe form of reaction in the Covid-19 patients including the multiple organ failures,” said Prof. Dr Nadir Arber, Director of the Integrated Cancer Prevention Center at Tel Aviv Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Centre.

Addressing the journalists from around the world via a video conference, Prof.Dr Arber said the novel therapeutic agent was cheaper, showed higher efficacy, was easy to produce, and could be used in low doses with no-known side effects.

“The main complication caused by Covid-19 is the Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is caused by an inflammation of the lungs. The EXO-CD24 treatment is used to soothe the inflammation and stop the cytokine storm thereby treating ARDS,” said Dr Shiran Shapira, Head of the Laboratory for Molecular Biology at the Center for Cancer Diagnosis and Prevention at Ichilov Hospital.

Saying that the treatment was administered on 35 patients in the first phase, Prof. Dr Arber said that the patients despite severe symptoms recovered in less than a week.

“At a time when the developing countries are finding it both expensive and difficult to treat the coronavirus patients, the EXO-CD24 treatment can be revolutionary due to it being cheaper to produce and more efficient to use,” Prof.Dr Arber said.

Prof.Dr Arber said the treatment could also be developed to treat other illnesses such as Ebola and different forms of influenza, which are further complicated by auto-immune disorders.

Many countries including Brazil have already requested Israel for the treatment, but the scientists involved in it have asked for more time to study the results and prepare the treatment for future usage.