Passive immunization with convalescent plasma (CP) is being evaluated as a treatment for COVID-19. A multicentre, open-label, randomized, controlled trial was conducted in India in which patients received either best standard of care (BSC) (n = 229) or BSC coupled with two 200 ml doses of CP (n = 235). Despite lower viral RNA measured in patients who received CP, there was no difference in 28-day mortality or progression to severe disease between treatment arms. Importantly, 83% of study participants showed detectable neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) at enrolment and nAb titres did not change after treatment. Although this trial failed to demonstrate therapeutic efficacy, future investigations using CP pre-screened for higher nAb titres or treating nAb-naive patients may be warranted.
References
Original article
Agarwal, A. et al. Convalescent plasma in the management of moderate COVID-19 in India: an open-label parallel-arm phase II multicentre randomized controlled trial (PLACID Trial). Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.03.20187252 (2020)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brown, M. Convalescent plasma trial shows no benefit. Nat Rev Immunol 20, 649 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-020-00461-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-020-00461-3