Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Jul 15, 2025 7 hours, 21 minutes ago
Thailand Medical News: A new medical review has shed light on the potential of an existing drug, defibrotide, as a powerful protector against endothelial injury—a type of blood vessel damage that plays a critical role in severe COVID-19 cases and blood-related cancers. Researchers from prestigious institutions including Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, University of Maryland, Humanitas University in Italy, and the University of Murcia in Spain, have detailed how this underutilized drug could revolutionize treatment protocols across various deadly conditions.
Defibrotide Emerges as Lifesaving Therapy for COVID-19 and Blood Cancers
This
Thailand Medical News report highlights how defibrotide, currently approved for a rare liver complication after stem cell transplants, might soon find broader use in protecting the blood vessel lining from widespread damage seen in multiple diseases—especially hematologic malignancies like leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, and even in both acute and long COVID.
Understanding Endothelial Injury and the Role of Defibrotide
Endothelial injury is a silent but devastating feature of many serious health conditions. When the inner lining of blood vessels becomes damaged due to infections, toxic drugs, or an overreactive immune system, it can trigger dangerous clotting, inflammation, and multi-organ failure. Defibrotide works by balancing clotting and bleeding factors, calming inflammation, and repairing the vascular barrier.
According to the researchers, defibrotide reduces harmful substances like tissue factor, von Willebrand factor, and inflammatory molecules like TNF-alpha and IL-6. At the same time, it increases protective agents like nitric oxide, prostacyclin, and thrombomodulin. These effects together help restore vascular health, reduce clot risk, and improve blood flow.
Clinical Evidence Across Multiple Conditions
In blood cancer patients undergoing high-risk treatments such as stem cell transplants or CAR T-cell therapy, defibrotide has shown impressive results. For example, in one major pooled analysis involving over 2500 patients with life-threatening liver damage (VOD/SOS) after transplants, those treated with defibrotide had significantly better survival rates—up to 74% in children and 61% in adults—compared to historical mortality rates exceeding 80%.
Even more compelling is its performance in COVID-19. In several studies, patients with severe COVID pneumonia who received defibrotide showed lower death rates, faster recovery from respiratory failure, and reduced levels of clotting markers. One study reported a 75% survival rate among ventilated patients, compared to historical averages of 26–61%.
Hope for Long COVID and Therapy Side Effects
The report also points out defibrotide’s promise in managing long COVID symptoms by reversing ongoing blood vessel inflammation and dysfunction. It may also help
prevent the dangerous inflammatory side effects—such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity—seen with modern cancer immunotherapies like CAR T-cell and bispecific antibodies.
The drug’s safety profile is also encouraging. Across numerous studies, including in critically ill COVID-19 patients, defibrotide rarely caused bleeding or serious side effects when administered properly.
Conclusion
Defibrotide’s powerful ability to protect and repair the inner lining of blood vessels positions it as a potentially game-changing therapy not only for rare transplant complications, but also for severe COVID-19, long COVID, cancer treatment side effects, and other vascular disorders. More clinical trials are needed, but the drug’s track record in both adults and children is strong. If adopted more widely, defibrotide could save lives across multiple patient populations by targeting a core mechanism of disease—vascular injury.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Biomolecules
https://www.mdpi.com/2218-273X/15/7/1004
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https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
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