Coronavirus disease 2019: A tissue engineering and regenerative medicine perspective

Current therapies for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are generally used to manage rather than cure this highly infective disease. Therefore, there is a significant unmet medical need for a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19. Inflammation is the driving force behind coronavirus infections, and the majority of deaths caused by COVID-19 are the result of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). It is crucial to control the inflammation as early as possible. To date, numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) products, including mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and their derivatives (eg, exosomes) for coronavirus infections, which could be applied for the COVID-19. In this review, first, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the present and future of TERM research and products are briefly presented. Then, the recent clinical trials and the therapeutic benefits of MSCs in coronavirus-induced ARDS are critically reviewed. Last, recent advances in the field of tissue engineering relevant to coronavirus infections, including three-dimensional platforms to study the disease progression and test the effects of antiviral agents, are described. Moreover, the application of biomaterials for vaccine technology and drug delivery are highlighted. Despite promising results in the preclinical and clinical applications of MSC therapy for coronavirus infections, controversy still exists, and thus further investigation is required to understand the efficacy of these therapies.