New Ohio State research uses plasma from recovered coronavirus patients for treatment

COLUMBUS (WCMH) — The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center announced Tuesday it has transfused the first patient in central and northern Ohio with plasma from a recovered COVID-19 coronavirus patient.

The university says the transfusion is part of a nationwide effort to provide this plasma, also known as convalescent plasma, to people who are ill with life-threatening COVID-19 disease. People who’ve recovered from COVID-19 often have antibodies – proteins in the blood – that could possibly attack the virus. Ohio State researchers will also study the donated plasma to learn which antibodies perform best.

“This ‘compassionate use’ therapy shows promise to lessen the severity or shorten the length of COVID-19. Our new program involves a routine blood donation process to collect the plasma that will be given to critically-ill COVID-19 patients to fight this infection,” Dr. Scott Scrape, a pathologist and director of Transfusion Medicine at Wexner Medical Center.  “While this is a new treatment for COVID-19, throughout history, medical professionals have used antibodies from the blood of recovered patients as a treatment for infections when vaccines or other medications weren’t yet available.”

The hospital says it is joining a national consortium to expand access to plasma for patients in need. The FDA is allowing the treatment through an emergency investigational drug process.

Wexner Medical Center is partnering with Milwaukee-based Versiti Inc. to collect blood from fully recovered COVID-19 patients, and each blood donation can treat up to two people, Scrape said.

Plasma must be collected from donors who meet normal blood donation criteria, as well as additional criteria:

• Prior diagnosis of COVID-19 documented by a laboratory test.
• Complete resolution of symptoms at least 28 days prior to donation.
• Negative for HLA antibodies. Some women who’ve been pregnant, and males or females who’ve had a blood transfusion will test positive for HLA antibodies.