The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has grown to be a global public health emergency since patients were first detected in Wuhan, China. Thus far, no specific drugs or vaccines are available to cure the patients with COVID-19 infection. The immune system and inflammation are proposed to play a central role in COVID-19 pathogenesis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to possess a comprehensive powerful immunomodulatory function. Intravenous infusion of MSCs has shown promising results in COVID-19 treatment. Here, we report a case of a severe COVID-19 patient treated with human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly-derived MSCs (hWJCs) from a healthy donor in Liaocheng People's Hospital, China, from February 24, 2020. The pulmonary function and symptoms of the patient with COVID-19 pneumonia was significantly improved in 2 days after hWJC transplantation, and recovered and discharged in 7 days after treatment. After treatment, the percentage and counts of lymphocyte subsets (CD3 + , CD4 + , and CD8 + T cell) were increased, and the level of IL-6, TNF-α, and C-reactive protein is significantly decreased after hWJC treatment. Thus, the intravenous transplantation of hWJCs was safe and effective for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, especially for the patients in a critically severe condition. This report highlights the potential of hWJC infusions as an effective treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia.

Studies have shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have low immunogenicity and immune regulation. Human umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly provides a new source for MSCs that are highly proliferative and have multi-differentiation potential. To investigate immunomodulatory effects of human Wharton’s jelly cells (WJCs) on lymphocytes, we successfully isolated MSCs from human umbilical cord Wharton’s jelly. WJCs expressed MSC markers but low levels of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-ABC and no HLA-DR. These results indicate that WJCs have low immunogenicity. Both WJCs and their culture supernatant could inhibit the proliferation of phytohemagglutinin-stimulated human peripheral blood lymphocytes and mouse splenocytes. Additionally, WJCs suppressed secretion of transforming growth factor-β1 and interferon-γ by human peripheral blood lymphocytes. We conclude that the immunomodulatory effect of WJCs may be related to direct cell contact and inhibition of cytokine secretion by human peripheral blood lymphocytes.

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PurposeTo systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of Cytokine-induced killer cells/dendritic cells-cytokine induced killer cells (CIK/DC-CIK) immunotherapy in treating advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.Results29 trials including 2,610 CRC patients were evolved. Compared with chemotherapy alone, the combination of chemotherapy with CIK/DC-CIK immunotherapy significantly prolonged the overall survival rate (OS) and disease-free survival rate (DFS) (1–5 year OS, P < 0.01; 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-year DFS, P < 0.01). The combined therapy also improved patients’ overall response, disease control rate and life quality (P < 0.05). After immunotherapy, lymphocyte subsets percentages of CD3+, CD3−CD56+, CD3+CD56+ and CD16+CD56+ (P < 0.01) and cytokines levels of IL-2 and IFN-γ (P < 0.05) were increased, while CD4+, CD8+ and CD4+CD25+ and IL-6 and TNF-α did not show significant change (P > 0.05).Materials and MethodsClinical trials reporting response or safety of CIK/DC-CIK immunotherapy treating advanced CRC patients and published before September 2016 were searched in Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, Wanfang and CNKI database. Research quality and heterogeneity were evaluated before analysis. Pooled analyses were performed using random or fixed-effect models.ConclusionsThe combination of CIK/DC-CIK immunotherapy and chemotherapy prolong CRC patients’ survival time, enhanced patients’ immune function and alleviates the adverse effects caused by chemotherapy.

BackgroundCellular immunotherapy has been widely used in the treatment of solid tumors. However, the clinical application of cord blood-derived dendritic cells and cytokine-induced killer cells (CB-DC-CIK) for the treatment of gastric cancer has not been frequently reported. In this study, the efficacy and safety of CB-DC-CIK for the treatment of gastric cancer were evaluated both in vitro and in vivo.MethodsThe phenotypes, cytokines, and cytotoxicity of CB-DC-CIK were detected in vitro. Patients with advanced gastric cancer were divided into the following two groups: the experimental group (CB-DC-CIK combined with chemotherapy) and the control group (chemotherapy alone). The curative effects and immune function were compared between the two groups.ResultsFirst, the results showed that combination therapy significantly increased the overall disease-free survival rate (P=0.0448) compared with chemotherapy alone. The overall survival rate (P=0.0646), overall response rate (P=0.410), and disease control rate (P=0.396) were improved in the experimental group, but these changes did not reach statistical significance. Second, the percentage of T-cell subsets (CD4+, CD3−CD56+, and CD3+CD56+) and the levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-2, which reflect immune function, were significantly increased (P<0.05) after immunotherapy. Finally, no serious side effects appeared in patients with gastric cancer after the application of cellular immunotherapy based on CB-DC-CIK.ConclusionCB-DC-CIK combined with chemotherapy is effective and safe for the treatment of patients with advanced gastric cancer.

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Background: Sodium cantharidinate/vitamin B6 (SC/VB6) injection, a famous insect-derived traditional Chinese medicine preparation, has been widely applied as a promising adjunctive drug for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its exact clinical efficacy and safety is still not well investigated. In this study, we aimed to summarize the efficacy of SC/VB6 injection on survival, liver function, immune function, and quality of life (QoL) in patients with HCC through the meta-analysis. Methods: All available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and high-quality prospective cohort studies that investigated the efficacy and safety of SC/VB6 for patients with HCC were searched from ten electronic databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Excerpt Medica Database (Embase), Medline, Web of Science (WOS), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Scientific Journal Database (CSJ), and Wanfang Database. Papers in Chinese or English published from January 2000 to July 2020 will be included without any restrictions. Study selection and data extraction will be performed independently by 2 researchers. The clinical outcomes including overall survival (OS), QoL, liver function, immune function, and adverse events, were systematically evaluated. Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 14.0 were used for data analysis, and the quality of the clinical trials was also evaluated. Results: The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and provide a helpful evidence for clinicians to formulate the best postoperative adjuvant treatment strategy for HCC patients. Conclusion: Our study will draw an objective conclusion of the efficacy of SC/VB6 on survival, liver function, immune function, and QoL in patients with HCC. INPLASY registration number: INPLASY202070121.

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