To the Editor, Acute lung injury (ALI) and the inflammatory cytokine storm cause considerable amount of deaths in the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Currently, very limited therapeutic options are available for the COVID-19-induced ALI. In our preclinical experiments,3 we found that a single intravenous transfusion of immunityand matrix-regulatory cells (IMRCs), derived from fully differentiated human embryonic stem cells, could safely treat ALI by rapidly modulating the inflammation induced by pulmonary cell death.3 Encouraged by this result, as part of an expanded access programme, we pilot-tested GMP-grade IMRC transfusion as a compassionate treatment in a severely ill COVID-19 patient who was diagnosed with ALI. A 44-year-old male patient from Wuhan was admitted on 23 January 2020, presenting with a 6-day history of fever and cough. The physical examination revealed a fever of 37.9°C, blood pressure of 120/61 mm Hg, pulse rate of 80 beats per minute, respiratory rate of 21 breaths per minute and blood oxygen saturation of 97.9%. Laboratory testing showed lymphocytopenia with a lymphocyte count of 0.65 × 109 cells per litre. Nasopharyngeal swab specimen was collected and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). He was briefly treated with Lianhua Qingwen (herbal flu drug) and the anti-retroviral cocktail lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra), but showed no improvement. By January 28, the fever had risen to 39°C, and he had shortness of breath under oxygen supplementation. CT scans showing multiple ground-glass opacities indicated the pneumonia had progressed to a severe stage (Figure 1A).

中文翻译：

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首例注入 hESC 衍生的免疫和基质调节细胞的 COVID-19

对于编辑，急性肺损伤 (ALI) 和炎性细胞因子风暴在 COVID-19 大流行中导致大量死亡。1 目前，可用于 COVID-19 诱导的 ALI 的治疗选择非常有限。在我们的临床前实验中，3 我们发现单次静脉输注源自完全分化的人类胚胎干细胞的免疫和基质调节细胞 (IMRC) 可以通过快速调节肺细胞死亡诱导的炎症来安全地治疗 ALI。3这一结果，作为扩大准入计划的一部分，我们对 GMP 级 IMRC 输血进行了试点测试，作为对一名被诊断患有 ALI 的重症 COVID-19 患者的同情治疗。一名来自武汉的 44 岁男性患者于 2020 年 1 月 23 日入院，出现发烧和咳嗽病史 6 天。体格检查：发热37.9℃，血压120/61mmHg，脉搏80次/分，呼吸21次/分，血氧饱和度97.9%。实验室检查显示淋巴细胞减少，淋巴细胞计数为每升 0.65 × 109 个细胞。收集鼻咽拭子标本并通过定量实时逆转录酶-聚合酶链反应 (qRT-PCR) 检测出 SARS-CoV-2 呈阳性。他接受了连花清瘟（草药流感药物）和抗逆转录病毒鸡尾酒洛匹那韦/利托那韦（Kaletra）的短暂治疗，但没有改善。到 1 月 28 日，他的体温已升至 39°C，在补充氧气的情况下出现呼吸急促。CT 扫描显示多个磨玻璃混浊表明肺炎已发展到严重阶段（图 1A）。