Coronavirus: Participants needed for Covid-19 research in NI

There are currently seven Covid-19 research projects being carried out in Northern Ireland

Researchers in Northern Ireland have called for people who have or are recovering from Covid-19 to consider taking part in one of the local studies into the virus.

There are currently seven projects being carried out in Northern Ireland.

These range from GP level to drug trials.

Researchers are examining ways to treat the disease in the absence of a vaccine.

Respiratory specialist Prof Cecilia O'Kane is one of those involved in a cutting edge medical trial - the Realist study - led by Queen's University Belfast.

Researchers are injecting critically ill patients in intensive care with a particular kind of stem cell.

They have signed up 12 patients so far to participate in the study.

They need 60 in total, but Prof O'Kane is confident they will get them.

Prof O'Kane says it is important to develop treatments if there is a new wave of coronavirus cases

Initial testing in the laboratory has shown these mesenchymal stromal cells or MSCs may help in the recovery of patients whose lungs have been damaged by coronavirus.

"We know that they can help clear bacteria and viruses," she said.

"We know that they reduce inflammation and we know they promote the repair of the lining of the lung and the blood vessels that supply the lungs, and there are very few therapies or very few drugs that would do all three of those things.

"And in fact often if you inhibit inflammation with a drug you actually stop the body's ability to fight infection.

"MSCs are a really unique kind of therapy because they can actually target all the three aspects of the damage that is happening in the Covid-infected lung."

'Speed of movement'

The results won't come through in time for this wave, but researchers hope they will be of significance in the future.

"For the next wave when and if it likely does happen, we need to understand what therapies do work for these patients," she said.

"What would be catastrophic for us is to hit a second wave and not have answers about the various different interventions that are being trialled and not know what the right therapies to give those patients would be."

Across Northern Ireland, 170 patients are taking part in various studies in every health trust area.

The speed at which the research is moving has not been seen before.

Dr Janice Bailie says research is impossible without the help of the participants

Dr Maurice O'Kane is the director of the NI Clinical Research Network.

"Normally large clinical research trials take a very long time to set up but if I could take the example of the Recovery study which is I think the biggest Covid study being undertaken in the world," he said.

"From the study being designed to the first patient recruited was a small number of weeks and this speed of movement is really unprecedented."

And in all of this, the patients are key.

"We couldn't do research without the help of the participants," said Dr Janice Bailie, from the Public Health Agency.

"We do everything that we possibly can to ensure the safety of those patients and to minimise their risk in participating in research.

"But we are so grateful to the patients for helping us to find out new knowledge about something like Covid-19 which is such a huge challenge to the health system at the moment."