Pneumonia is the inflammation of the lungs and it is the world's leading cause of death for children under 5 years of age. The latest coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus is a prominent culprit to severe pneumonia. With the pandemic running rampant for the past year, more than 1590000 deaths has occurred worldwide up to December 2020 and are substantially attributable to severe pneumonia and induced cytokine storm. Effective therapeutic approaches in addition to the vaccines and drugs under development are hence greatly sought after. Therapies harnessing stem cells and their derivatives have been established by basic research for their versatile capacity to specifically inhibit inflammation due to pneumonia and prevent alveolar/pulmonary fibrosis while enhancing antibacterial/antiviral immunity, thus significantly alleviating the severe clinical conditions of pneumonia. In recent clinical trials, mesenchymal stem cells have shown effectiveness in reducing COVID-19-associated pneumonia morbidity and mortality; positioning these cells as worthy candidates for combating one of the greatest challenges of our time and shedding light on their prospects as a next-generation therapy to counter future challenges.

中文翻译：

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针对重症肺炎患者的间充质干细胞疗法。

肺炎是肺部的炎症，是5岁以下儿童的世界主要死亡原因。最新的冠状病毒病2019（COVID-19）病毒是导致严重肺炎的罪魁祸首。在过去一年中，随着大流行的猖ramp，截至2020年12月，全世界已发生159万多人死亡，这在很大程度上归因于严重的肺炎和诱发的细胞因子风暴。因此，人们强烈寻求除正在开发的疫苗和药物之外的有效治疗方法。基础研究已经建立了利用干细胞及其衍生物的疗法，因为它们具有多种功能，能够特异性抑制肺炎引起的炎症并预防肺泡/肺纤维化，同时增强抗菌/抗病毒免疫力，从而大大减轻了严重的肺炎临床症状。在最近的临床试验中，间充质干细胞已显示出降低COVID-19相关性肺炎发病率和死亡率的有效方法。将这些细胞定位为抗击我们时代最大挑战之一的候选者，并阐明其作为应对未来挑战的下一代疗法的前景。