The Potential Use of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Their Derived Exosomes as Immunomodulatory Agents for COVID-19 Patients

Figure 1

Pathogenesis of COVID-19 and stem-cell-based therapy. (a). SARS-CoV-2 enters into the human body via droplets from infected patients. In human cells, SARS-CoV-2 binds with the ACE2 receptors present on host cells and initiates a cytokine storm. This storm results in severe lung injury. (b). MSCs. (c). MSCs-Exo or EVs are considered a possible future treatment due to many of their properties, such as a lack of ACE2 receptors (which prevents a cytokine storm) and immune modulation and restoration of damaged cells due to their essential growth factors and metabolites, see Supplemental Video 1 for the proposed mechanism of MSCs-Exo in treating COVID-19 symptoms.