Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is a recently discovered respiratory disease due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which has unexpectedly become a widespread pandemic. Yet, because of the absence of evidence, no effective COVID-19 treatment exists. Preventing infection, detecting instances, and providing supportive care are the main focuses of management. The medical community is curious about the promising recent use of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-based therapies in a small number of seriously unwell patients. Consequently, numerous clinical trials were registered for using stem cells in treating COVID-19, which were aimed at using different cell sources, dosages and, most importantly, various targeted patient groups. The possibilities of stem cell use in COVID-19 patients, as well as relevant challenges were discussed in this brief review. This review concluded that there are certain difficulties with MSCs therapy that must be resolved prior to commencing treatment. These included the need to improve homing efficiency of MSCs, the long-time of producing a clinically meaningful number of autologous stem cells; in addition, not all cases are good candidates for MSCs treatment; lastly, the absence of a standardized treatment creates differences in the effective parameters in MSCs therapy. It is hoped that in the near future, the combined efforts of global researches would better realize the actual therapeutic benefits of MSCs-based therapies in managing patients with COVID-19.
Key words: Clinical trials, COVID-19, mesenchymal stem cells, stem cell therapy, MSC
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