Passive Immune therapy subgroup

About the subgroup

In 2020, the world faced a pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, resulting in significant disease burden and mortality. In April 2020, an initiative was launched by ISBT to establish a working group on the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19, led by the Clinical Transfusion WP with involvement of transfusion professionals worldwide who are involved in setting up clinical studies for the use convalescent plasma in COVID-19 patients. 
The clinical research output of the working group was remarkable: after the first 10 weeks of its establishment, two interesting papers were published (1,2), followed by a webinar in July 2020. To date, at least 9 papers have been published: see references (1-9). After three years, it was decided to transition this working group into a subgroup under the Clinical Transfusion Working Party. 

The subgroup’s objectives are

To explore the use of plasma passive antibody and hyperimmune immunoglobulin therapy as passive immune therapy for emerging infections, with a focus on the following objectives:
•    Ensuring a safe collection of convalescent plasma 
•    Determining optimal product characteristics 
•    Identifying the patient populations that would benefit most from these therapies
 

Subgroup Activities

•    Monitoring ongoing studies with convalescent plasma and hyperimmune globulin for treating viral infections
•    Collaboration with other organizations within the objectives and focus of this subgroup

Establishment

In 2020, the world was struck by a pandemic caused by the SARS-COV-2 virus, which led to a high disease burden and mortality. In April 2020, an initiative was launched to form an ISBT working group on the use of convalescent plasma, initiated by the Clinical Transfusion WP with help of the ISBT central office, to reach out to transfusion professionals throughout the world, who were all involved in setting up clinical studies for the use convalescent plasma in COVID-19 infected patients.

The initial goal was to share valuable information on how to safely collect convalescent plasma from recovered donors, on what the optimal product characteristics should be and on which type of patients could optimally benefit from this product.
The clinical research output of the group was tremendous: after the first 10 weeks of its existence two interesting papers were published (1,2), followed by a webinar in July 2020. Until now, at least 9 papers have been published: see references (1-9). After 3 years, it was decided that this working group would be placed as a subgroup under the Clinical Transfusion Working Party.

The scope of this subgroup is  to investigate plasma passive antibody and hyperimmune immunoglobulin therapy as passive immune therapy for emerging infections.

Leadership

References

1. The role of convalescent plasma and hyperimmune immunoglobulins in the COVID-19 pandemic, including implications for future preparedness Cynthia So-Osman, Thierry Burnouf, Arwa Z Al-Riyami, Evan M Bloch, Lise Estcourt, Ruchika Goel, Pierre Tiberghien, Marion Vermeulen, Silvano Wendel, Erica M Wood Front Immunol 2024 Sep 9:15:1448720. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1448720.
2. Guidance for the procurement of COVID-19 convalescent plasma: differences between high- and low-middle-income countries. 
   Bloch EM, Goel R, Wendel S, Burnouf T, Al-Riyami AZ, Ang AL, DeAngelis V, Dumont LJ, Land K, Lee CK, Oreh A, Patidar G, Spitalnik SL, Vermeulen M, Hindawi S, Van den Berg K, Tiberghien P, Vrielink H, Young P, Devine D, So-Osman C. Vox Sang. 2020 Jun 13:10.1111/vox.12970. doi: 10.1111/vox.12970. 
3. Clinical use of Convalescent Plasma in the COVID-19 pandemic: a transfusion-focussed gap analysis with recommendations for future research priorities. 
   Al-Riyami AZ, Schäfer R, van den Berg K, Bloch EM, Estcourt LJ, Goel R, Hindawi S, Josephson CD, Land K, McQuilten ZK, Spitalnik SL, Wood EM, Devine DV, So-Osman C. Vox Sang. 2020 Jun 15. doi: 10.1111/vox.12973.
4. ABO blood group and COVID-19: a review on behalf of the ISBT COVID-19 working group. Goel R, Bloch EM, Pirenne F, Al-Riyami AZ, Crowe E, Dau L, Land K, Townsend M, Jecko T, Rahimi-Levene N, Patidar G, Josephson CD, Arora S, Vermeulen M, Vrielink H, Montemayor C, Oreh A, Hindawi S, van den Berg K, Serrano K, So-Osman C, Wood E, Devine DV, Spitalnik SL; ISBT COVID-19 Working Group.Vox Sang. 2021 Feb 12. doi: 10.1111/vox.13076.
5. Lessons learned in the collection of convalescent plasma during the COVID-19 pandemic. Silvano Wendel, Kevin Land, Dana V. Devine,  James Daly,  Renée Bazin, Pierre Tiberghien, Cheuk-Kwong Lee, Satyam Arora, Gopal Patidar, Kamini Khillan, Martin Smid,  Hans Vrielink, Adaeze Oreh, Arwa Z. Al-Riyami, Salwa Hindawi, Marion Vermeulen, Vernon Louw, Thierry Burnouf, Evan Bloch, Ruchika Goel, Mary Townsend & Cynthia So-Osman. Vox Sang 2021 March 27. Doi: 10.1111/vox.13096.
6. Understanding the role of therapeutic plasma exchange in COVID-19: preliminary guidance and practices. Patidar GK, Land KJ, Vrielink H, Rahimi-Levene N, Dann EJ, Al-Humaidan H, Spitalnik SL, Dhiman Y, So-Osman C, Hindawi SI. Vox Sang. 2021 Mar 17. doi: 10.1111/vox.13067.
7. International Forum on the Collection and Use of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma: Protocols, Challenges and Lessons Learned: Summary. 
   Al-Riyami AZ, Burnouf T, Yazer M, Triulzi D, Kumaş LT, Sağdur L, Pelit NB, Bazin R, Hindawi SI, Badawi MA, Patidar GK, Pandey HC, Chaurasia R, Fachini RM, Scuracchio P, Wendel S, Ang AL, Ong KH, Young P, Ihalainen J, Vierikko A, Qiu Y, Yang R, Xu H, Rahimi-Levene N, Shinar E, Izak M, Gonzalez CA, Ferrari DM, Cini PV, Aditya RN, Sharma RR, Sachdev S, Hans R, Lamba DS, Nissen-Meyer LSH, Devine DV, Lee CK, Leung JN, Hung IFN, Tiberghien P, Gallian P, Morel P, Al Maamari K, Al-Hinai Z, Vrielink H, So-Osman C, De Angelis V, Berti P, Ostuni A, Marano G, Nevessignsky MT, El Ekiaby M, Daly J, Hoad V, Kim S, van den Berg K, Vermeulen M, Glatt TN, Schäfer R, Reik R, Gammon R, Lopez M, Estcourt L, MacLennan S, Roberts D, Louw V, Dunbar N; ISBT Convalescent Plasma Group. Vox Sang. 2021 May 20. doi: 10.1111/vox.13113
8. International Forum on the Collection and Use of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma: Responses. 
   Al-Riyami AZ, Burnouf T, Yazer M, Triulzi D, Kumaş LT, Sağdur L, Pelit NB, Bazin R, Hindawi SI, Badawi MA, Patidar GK, Pandey HC, Chaurasia R, Fachini RM, Scuracchio P, Wendel S, Ang AL, Ong KH, Young P, Ihalainen J, Vierikko A, Qiu Y, Yang R, Xu H, Rahimi-Levene N, Shinar E, Izak M, Gonzalez CA, Ferrari DM, Cini PV, Aditya RN, Sharma RR, Sachdev S, Hans R, Lamba DS, Nissen-Meyer LSH, Devine DV, Lee CK, Leung JN, Hung IFN, Tiberghien P, Gallian P, Morel P, Al Maamari K, Al-Hinai Z, Vrielink H, So-Osman C, De Angelis V, Berti P, Ostuni A, Marano G, Nevessignsky MT, El Ekiaby M, Daly J, Hoad V, Kim S, van den Berg K, Vermeulen M, Glatt TN, Schäfer R, Reik R, Gammon R, Lopez M, Estcourt L, MacLennan S, Roberts D, Louw V, Dunbar N. Vox Sang. 2021 May 20. doi: 10.1111/vox.13114
9. Production and Quality Assurance of Human Polyclonal Hyperimmune Immunoglobulins against SARS-CoV-2. Thierry Burnouf, Birgit Gathof, Evan M.Bloch, Renée Bazin, Vincenzo de Angelis, Gopal Kumar Patidar, Rada M. Grubovic Rastvorceva, Adaeze Oreh, Ruchika Goel, Naomi Rahimi-Levene, Salwa Hindawi, Arwa Z.Al-Riyami, Cynthia So-Osman, on behalf of the ISBT COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Working Group. Transf Med Rev. 2022; June. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.tmrv.2022.06.00.

10. Early and out‐of‐hospital use of COVID‐19 convalescent plasma: An international assessment of utilization and feasibility. Arwa Z al Riyami et al. Vox Sanguinis 2022 Sept 17. DOI:10.1111/vox.13347