Sara Razi
1,2 
, Zahra Molavi
1, Seyed Amir Mirmotalebisohi
3,4, Zahra Niknam
1, Marzieh Sameni
3,4, Vahid Niazi
5, Amirjafar Adibi
6, Mohsen Yazdani
7, Mohammad Mehdi Ranjbar
8, Hakimeh Zali
1,5* 1 Proteomics Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
2 Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Student Research Committee, Department of Biotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
4 Cellular and Molecular Biology Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
5 Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
6 Departments of Orthopedics, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
7 Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran.
8 Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Karaj, Iran.
Abstract
After severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the third coronavirus epidemic that soon turned into a pandemic. This virus causes acute respiratory syndrome in infected people. The mortality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection will probably rise unless efficient treatments or vaccines are developed. The global funding and medical communities have started performing more than five hundred clinical examinations on a broad spectrum of repurposed drugs to acquire effective treatments. Besides, other novel treatment approaches have also recently emerged, including cellular host-directed therapies. They counteract the unwanted responses of the host immune system that led to the severe pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. This brief review focuses on mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) principles in treating the COVID-19. The US clinical trials database and the world health organization database for clinical trials have reported 82 clinical trials (altogether) exploring the effects of MSCs in COVID-19 treatment. MSCs also had better be tried for treating other pathogens worldwide. MSC treatment may have the potential to end the high mortality rate of COVID-19. Besides, it also limits the long-term inability of survivors.