Convalescent Antibodies Infusion in Critically Ill COVID 19 Patients

A Pilot Study to Explore the Efficacy and Safety of Rescue Theraphy With Antibodies From Convalescent Patients Obtained With Double -Filtration Plasmapheresis (DFPP) and Infused in Critically Ill Ventilated Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

The 2019 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 or COVID 19), which originated in Wuhan, China, has become a major concern all over the world.

Convalescent plasma or immunoglobulins have been used as a last resort to improve the survival rate of patients with SARS whose condition continued to deteriorate despite any attempted treatment.. Moreover, several studies showed a shorter hospital stay and lower mortality in patients treated with convalescent plasma than those who were not treated with convalescent plasma. Evidence shows that convalescent plasma from patients who have recovered from viral infections can be used effectively as a treatment of patients with active disease.

The use of solutions enriched of antiviral antibodies has several important advantages over the convalescent plasma including the high level of neutralizing antibodies supplied. Plasma-exchange is expensive and requires large volumes of substitution fluid. Albumin is better tolerated and less expensive, but exchanges using albumin solutions increase the risk of bleeding because of progressive coagulation factor depletion. With either albumin or fresh frozen plasma, increasing the risk of cardiovascular instability in the plasma donor and in the recipient, which can be detrimental in a critically ill patient with COVID 19 pneumonia.

The aforementioned limitations of plasma therapy can be overcome by using selective apheresis methods, such as double-filtration plasmapheresis (DFPP).DFPP is a modality of plasma purification that performs an initial plasma separation from blood, and the subsequent separation of specific molecules, on the basis of their specific molecular weight (cut-off), by using a fractionation filter. The Fractionation Filter 2A20, because of its membrane sieving cut-off, retains larger molecules and returns plasma along with smaller molecules to the circulation, including the major part of the albumin. The selection of the membrane 2A20 is related to the appropriate Sieving Coefficient for IgG that allows to efficiently collect antibodies from patients which are recovered from COVID-19, with negligible fluid losses and limited removal of albumin. The total amount of antibodies obtained during one DFPP session exceeds by three to four times the total amount provided to recipients with one unit of plasma obtained during one plasma-exchange session from one COVID-19 convalescent donor. This should result in more effective viral inhibition and larger benefit for the patient achieved with one unit of enriched immunoglobulin solution obtained with DFPP than with one unit of plasma obtained with plasma exchange.

These observations provide the background for a pilot study aimed to explore whether the infusion of antibodies obtained with one single DFPP procedure from voluntary convalescent donors could offer an effective and safe therapeutic option for critically ill patients with severe coronavirus (COVID-19) pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation.

Study Overview

• Status: Terminated
• Conditions: Coronavirus Infection; Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated
• Intervention / Treatment: Biological: Anti-coronavirus antibodies (immunoglobulins)obtained with DFPP from convalescent patients

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 9
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Piero Luigi Ruggenenti, MD; Phone Number: 3814 0039 035 267; Email: pruggenenti@asst-pg23.it

Study Locations

• Italy
  • Bergamo, Italy, 24100
    • ASST HPG23 - Unit of Nephrology
  • Bergamo, Italy, 24100
    • ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII - Microbiology and Virology Unit
  • Bergamo, Italy, 24100
    • Asst Pg23 - S.I.M.T
  • Bergamo, Italy, 24100
    • ASST-PG23 - Intensive Care Unit
  • BG
    • Ranica, BG, Italy, 24020
      • IRFMN - Clinical Research Center for Rare Diseases

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Plasma Ig Donors

• Adult (>18 and <65-yr-old) men and women
• Convalescent donor who recovered from COVID 19 from at least 14 days according to the clinical and laboratory criteria defined by the Consiglio Superiore di Sanità on February 20, 2019 ("The recovered patient is the one who resolves the symptoms of COVID-19 infection and who is negative in two consecutive tests for the search for SARS-Cov-2, performed 24 hours apart") with the exceptions mentioned in the attached derogation (that is "no upper age limit to donation provided there are no clinical contraindications to the procedure and independent of documented evidence of two negative tests for SARS-Cov 2 naso-faringeal contamination")
• Male or female donor; if female only if nulliparous; in both cases with a negative history of blood component transfusions
• Careful clinical evaluation of the patient-donor with particular reference to the criteria established by current legislation to protect the health of the donor who donates by apheresis
• Presence of adequate levels of neutralizing anti-SARS-COV-2 antibodies;
• Biological qualification test negative defined by current indications (performed at SIMT of HPG23)
• Test negative for: HAV RNA, HEV RNA, PVB19 DNA (performed at HPG23)
• Informed consent

Recipients

• Adult (>18-yr-old) men and women
• COVID-19 pneumonia diagnosed by standard criteria
• Need of ventilator support
• Informed consent for participation in the study (critically ill patients will be unable to provide consent. Consent will be oral if a written consent will be impossible. If the subject is incapable of giving an informed consent and an authorized representative is not available without a delay that would, in the opinion of the Investigator, compromise the potential life-saving effect of the treatment this can be administered without consent. Consent to remain in the research should be sought as soon as the conditions of the patient will allow it).
• <48 hours of mechanical ventilation

Exclusion Criteria:

• >48 hour mechanical ventilation
• Patient being treated with other anti-COVID-19 experimental treatments

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Antibodies (immunoglobulins) infusion; Anti-coronavirus antibodies obtained with double-filtration plasmapheresis (DFPP )from convalescent patients.

Biological: Anti-coronavirus antibodies (immunoglobulins)obtained with DFPP from convalescent patients; Antibodies obtained from consenting convalescent donors will be administered to ten consecutive patients who fulfill the inclusion criteria . Convalescent antibodies will be obtained with one DFPP procedure from consenting donors and infused in one critically ill, ventilated patient with COVID 19 pneumonia.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Number of mechanical ventilation days.	Through study completion, an average of 6 months.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Survival		Through study completion, an average of 6 months.
Shift to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) ventilation		Through study completion, an average of 6 months.
Referral to a sub-intensive care unit or discharge		Through study completion, an average of 6 months.
Viral titer		Changes from before Ig administration, one day and one week after Ig administration and every week after discharge from the intensive care unit through study completion, an average of 6 months.
Anti COVID 19 IgG antibodies		Changes from before Ig administration, one day and one week after Ig administration and every week after discharge from the intensive care unit through study completion, an average of 6 months.
Anti COVID 19 IgM antibodies		Changes from before Ig administration, one day and one week after Ig administration and every week after discharge from the intensive care unit through study completion, an average of 6 months.
C5a concentration	Marker of complement activation in plasma.	Changes from before Ig administration, one day and one week after Ig administration and every week after discharge from the intensive care unit through study completion, an average of 6 months.
C3a concentration	Marker of complement activation in plasma.	Changes from before Ig administration, one day and one week after Ig administration and every week after discharge from the intensive care unit through study completion, an average of 6 months.
Serum C5b-9 concentration	Marker of complement activation in plasma.	Changes from before Ig administration, one day and one week after Ig administration and every week after discharge from the intensive care unit through study completion, an average of 6 months.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: A.O. Ospedale Papa Giovanni XXIII
• Collaborators: Aferetica - Italy (BO)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Curto D, Tomatis F, Gastoldi S, Galbusera M, Noris M, Raimondi F, Lorini FL, Falanga A, Marchetti M, Remuzzi G, Ruggenenti P. Case Report: Effects of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Convalescent Antibodies Obtained With Double Filtration Plasmapheresis. Front Immunol. 2021 Jun 30;12:711915. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.711915. eCollection 2021.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 15, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 17, 2021
• Study Completion (Actual): October 27, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 9, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): April 15, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 23, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 21, 2023
• Last Verified: March 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: COVID19; Double-filtration plasmapheresis; Convalescent antibodies; Pneumonia COVID 19 ventilator-dependent
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Coronaviridae Infections; Nidovirales Infections; RNA Virus Infections; Virus Diseases; Infections; Respiratory Tract Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Pneumonia, Viral; Lung Diseases; Disease Attributes; Cross Infection; Iatrogenic Disease; Healthcare-Associated Pneumonia; COVID-19; Coronavirus Infections; Pneumonia; Pneumonia, Ventilator-Associated; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Immunologic Factors; Antibodies; Immunoglobulins; Immunoglobulins, Intravenous
• Other Study ID Numbers: DFPP COVID 19

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No