Transplantation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Treating Patients with Severe COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The objective of the study is to perform a critical review, exploration, and strong summary of the roles of mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in treating various diseases, including COVID-19. A comprehensive search was carried out in mainstream bibliographic databases or Medical Subject Headings, including Scien Direct, PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, and websites of the news. The search was applied to the articles that were published between January 2020 and April 2020. Needed article information was extracted from each article by : 1) direct information including journal (research article, review article, meeting abstract, conference abstract, correspondence, author index, editorial board meeting abstract, discussion), book chapter, title, authors, abstract, full text documents of candidate studies, websites of the news, publishing year; 2) study period; 3) research (study) method used; 4) types of mesenchymal stem cells; and 5) types of human organ system disorder or disease studied. With strict literature search and screening processes, it yielded 6 articles from 76 articles of initial literature databases and websites of the news (January 2020 to April 2020). Anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of MSCs in the treatment of respiratory diseases were confirmed by at least 17 clinical studies and more than 70 clinical trials are registered in this issue that are available at: https:// www.clinicaltrials.gov. MSC transplantation improves the treatment outcome of COVID-19 patients may be due to controlling inflammatory response and promoting tissue regeneration and repair. In conclusion, Human MSCs are currently being evaluated as a stem cell treatment for a number of diseases, particularly severe COVID-19 and have been demonstrated to be safe in clinical trials. There are some promising reports to apply MSCs therapy to treat COVID-19. MSCs may possibly be one of the most ideal therapeutics, or a combination of treatment to treat patients with COVID-19. Nevertheless, further studies are urgently needed to investigate and optimize a number of variables in the human MSC culture environment by developing a bioprocess that can be operated in accordance with the Good Manufacturing Product (GMP).