Researchers seeking volunteers for study of convalescent plasma, that offers COVID prevention immediately, likely useful against variants

UMass Medical School researchers studying the effects of convalescent plasma — or plasma from recovered patients which contains antibodies against COVID-19 — are renewing the call for volunteers who have recently either tested positive for COVID-19 or been exposed to a positive COVID-19 patient.

“We’re trying to find out how much these convalescent plasma antibodies work,” Dr. David Sullivan, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said in an interview Wednesday.

The study is a collaboration among Johns Hopkins, UMass Medical School and several other institutions nationwide.

“We’re also looking for people to be part of the COVID solution to participate in kicking back against the virus,” he said.

In April, the UMass Memorial Health Care system became the first health care provider in Massachusetts to use convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19 patients. The results were promising, but convalescent plasma was only used among very sick patients.

The study, which began in the summer, is a double blind placebo-controlled trial to determine two things: whether early use of convalescent plasma can effectively treat the patient and prevent hospitalizations or death from COVID-19; and whether convalescent plasma can prevent infection in those recently exposed to the virus.

Sullivan said the study has enrolled about two dozen people so far, but is looking for more volunteers in two groups.

The first group consists of patients who have COVID symptoms and a positive test result within the past week. 

The second group includes asymptomatic individuals who have been recently exposed to COVID.

Sullivan said that, even with the availability of vaccines, the use of convalescent plasma could be important. 

While there may be thousands of different kinds of antibodies effective against COVID-19 present in convalescent plasma, vaccines consist of only one type of antibody, Sullivan explained. That suggests there is a greater likelihood of convalescent plasma being effective against COVID-19 variants than a vaccine.

“Convalescent plasma with thousands of antibodies is not dependent on one lock and key match. There are thousands of keys that we can try that will adapt to the variants,” Sullivan said.

Moreover, it takes about four to five weeks for the vaccine to produce the antibodies necessary to prevent COVID, Sullivan continued. Convalescent plasma has all of the antibodies ready to go.

“Vaccines take four to five weeks to prevention. Convalescent plasma is prevention immediately, and is likely to be useful against the variants where vaccines may be less effective,” Sullivan said. 

If interested in participating, visit covidplasmatrial.org. Volunteers are  paid.