On February 6, 2021, the Jerusalem Post reported that 29 of 30 moderate-to-severe COVID-19 patients, who were administered a treatment developed by Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) as part of a Phase I trial, recovered from the disease and were released within three to five days, according to a hospital statement on Friday, February 5. The 30th patient also recovered, but it took longer than five days. The Post said that the patients were given Professor Nadir Arber’s EXO-CD24 COVID-19 treatment, which is based on CD24-enriched exosomes and is meant to fight the cytokine storm that is associated with many of the world’s COVID-19 deaths. Professor Arber (photo) is Director, Health Promotion Center and Integrated Cancer Prevention Center at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. CD24 is a signal transducer molecule (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD24). “This protein is located on the surface of cells and has a well-known and important role in regulating the immune system,” explained Dr. Shiran Shapira, Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Sourasky Medical Center and who works in Professor Arber’s lab, according to the Post. Dr. Shapira has been conducting research on the CD24 protein for over two decades, i24 News reported. The EXO-CD24 COVID-19 treatment “is based on exosomes that the body is releasing from the cell membrane and uses for intercellular communication. We enrich the exosomes with the CD24 protein, which is known to play an important role in regulating the immune system," according to Dr. Shapira, i24 News reported. The Daily Mail said that Professor Arber spent years developing EXO-CD24 for the possible treatment of ovarian cancer before trialing it on coronavirus patients. According to the Daily Mail, Professor Arber said it took about six months from the time the idea of using this treatment in the battle against COVID-19 was raised until it was first tested in humans.
Professor Arber told the Times of Israel: “The preparation is inhaled once a day for a few minutes, for five days. The preparation is directed straight to the heart of the storm--the lungs--so unlike other formulas…which selectively restrain a certain cytokine, or operate widely, but cause many serious side effects, EXO-CD24 is administered locally, works broadly and without side effects.”
i24 News quoted Professor Arber as hailing the treatment as “effective and inexpensive.”
According to Arutz Sheva Israel National News, Professor Arber said the medication may serve an important role in combating the pandemic, even after the mass vaccination campaign is completed.
“Even if the vaccines do their job, and even if there aren’t any new mutations, one way or another, the coronavirus will be staying with us. That’s why we developed this special medication: EXO-CD24. This is unprecedented. It’s been about half a year from the time the idea was hatched and the technologies created, to the first human trials conducted and phase one of testing completed,” Professor Arber said, according to Arutz Shiva.
Ichilov Hospital has appealed to the Israel Health Ministry to move forward with further clinical trials. Once approved, the treatment can be tried on additional patients, according to the Jerusalem Post.
[Jerusalem Post article] [Times of Israel article] [Arutz Shiva article] [i24 article] [Forward article] [Daily Mail article]
