Convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in China represents a significant threat to global health. Unfortunately, effective therapeutic drugs and vaccines to cure SARS-CoV-2 are still lacking. Convalescent Plasma therapy which induces passive immunization seems a successful treatment for COVID-19 patients and also proves to be of huge value in terms of saving the severely ill patient. Plasma therapy acts by Blocking the Virus (Neutralization), Enhancing Phagocytosis (Opsonization), Immune System Activation (Complement Activation), and finally killing Virus (Antibody-Dependent Cell-mediated Cytotoxicity). Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States was also given the stamp of approval for use of plasma therapy on 23 August 2020. In this review, we introduced the effective level of antibodies, potential mechanisms of CPT, WHO criteria for donating the plasma as well as future uncertainties of convalescent plasma therapy in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.