Seattle research group coordinating human trial for coronavirus treatment

SEATTLE — The Food and Drug Administration has given approval for a new coronavirus immunotherapy clinical trial to go forward. It’s a treatment using “Natural Killer cells” -- a special type of immune cell - that’s also shown success in fighting against some cancers.

Seattle’s Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) says it’s coordinating human trials for the treatment in collaboration with New Jersey-based Celularity, which pioneered investigational immunotherapy.

The treatment is for people with COVID-19 who are sick enough to be hospitalized – which means the virus has already started attacking their lungs.

“We feel this incredible sense of urgency right now,” said Dr. Corey Casper, the CEO of IDRI. “Patients with moderate disease - right now, there are no other good therapies,” he said.

Here's how the new immunotherapy works. Casper explains that when the virus is in your body, your immune system is attacking it. But when COVID-19 reaches your lungs, your body starts attacking there.

“That creates even more inflammation,” said Casper, who is also a clinical professor of global health and medicine (infectious disease) at the University of Washington.

As symptoms progress, your lungs can fill with fluid.

“The initial patients here in Seattle with severe disease, they were actually dying of the complications of the immune system fighting the virus,” Casper said.

The treatment they're about to start testing is to give hospitalized patients something called “Natural Killer cells,” or NK cells.

“They’ll get an IV bag of these immune cells,” Casper said. “We'll infuse these into the body, they'll find their way to the lungs, they'll kill the virus, and control the inflammation the virus is causing and killing the patients,” he said.

He said patients in China who got severely sick from COVID-19 were found to have lower numbers of the Natural Killer cells.

“We think by giving these cells back, it gives them critical cells -- immune cells -- they’re lacking to fight the infection,” Casper said.

The company in New Jersey, Celularity, is producing the infusions of CYNK-001, their Natural Killer cell product.

IDRI in Seattle is handling the clinical trial portion, which will start with 86 patients.

Casper said Natural Killer cells have already shown success in some blood and brain cancer patients who've exhausted other treatment options.

“Seeing that cancer melt away is one of most remarkable things I've seen,” Casper said. “We’re hoping the same process that allows these cells to go where needed to kill a cancer, will allow them to go where they need to go to kill coronavirus,” he said.

The company hopes to start treating COVID-19 patients within a few weeks. Patients who participate will be in Washington, the East Coast, and other potential hot spots.

Casper said the biotechnology could also be used potentially to treat new viruses in the future.

“Beyond its promise as a critically needed treatment for COVID-19, the biology of NK cells indicates a possibility that this immunotherapy could be used as an off-the-shelf treatment for future pandemic infections,” he added.

© 2020 Cox Media Group