Recent studies show that patients with the most serious forms of the coronavirus had high levels of something called IL-6, a common inflammatory cytokine, which MediSieve has previously encountered while researching sepsis and cytokine storms.
Recognising similarities between these findings, Chief Technology Officer Dr Cristina Blanco-Andujar has focused the team's activities on investigating how to use the magnetic blood filtration system to help treat COVID-19 patients more effectively.
Magnetic blood filtration is a revolutionary method of treating blood-borne diseases by removing pathogens, toxins or other targets directly from a patient’s bloodstream. Practically any component can be specifically targeted and removed, providing a platform technology that can be used to treat a huge range of blood-borne medical conditions.
Finding a way to selectively and rapidly target and remove IL-6 from COVID-19 patients’ bloodstream could be extremely beneficial.
Currently, the majority of severe COVID-19 patients are treated with immunoblockers or immunosuppressants. While still effective treatments, their most dangerous drawback is that the suppressants stay in the bloodstream, leaving patients immunsupressed while fighting the infection.
“Using the technology developed by MediSieve means that treatment is tuned for a certain amount of time and then stops without having a lasting effect on the patient. It’s an exciting development and we’re actively exploring and accelerating our research so we can progress to clinical trials”, Dr Blanco-Andujar explains.
To ensure that its technology is made available as soon as possible MediSieve has applied for funding schemes to help the company with research and development.
MediSieve expands its research into treating COVID-19 April 29, 2020
COVID-19 Response April 03, 2020