“Breathing Ethanol Vapor: A Potential Solution to Fight Respiratory Infections Including Influenza and COVID-19”

Ethanol is known to be an effective external disinfectant but its virtues do not stop there: it would also deactivate viruses inside the body! This is what researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan have observed, during research on mice. The study was published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Breathing ethanol vapor to protect against the flu?

According to the scientists, the mice treated with ethanol vapor during the experiment were protected against lethal respiratory infections caused by the influenza A virus, one of the responsible for seasonal flu epidemics. By using a humidifier to produce ethanol vapor in a small container, they found that when mice infected with influenza A inhaled the vapor for ten minutes, the virus was inactivated.

The researchers noticed that the influenza A virus accumulates in a thin layer of fluid covering the lung cells that protect the surface of the airways. According to them, to successfully treat the infection in humans, ethanol vapor must increase the concentrations of ethanol in this liquid by up to 20%: “This concentration is not toxic to lung cells created in the laboratory to mimic human cells. At body temperature, 20% ethanol can not only inactivate influenza A virus outside cells within one minute, but also prevent the virus from replicating inside those cells”, explain the researchers.

Ethanol could help fight respiratory infections

This discovery could make it possible to fight effectively against the flu, the consequences of which can be significant for the most fragile. Indeed, according to the Foundation for Medical Research, most of the complications of influenza concern the respiratory system and are often due to bacterial superinfection, which can be fatal. “The flu can also aggravate an existing chronic illness. This is why people with diabetes, heart and/or lung failure, people with cystic fibrosis or nephropathy are more prone to complications.”, indicates the Foundation.

Also, the influenza A virus has an outer membrane, called an envelope. This specificity is found in all the viruses that have caused pandemics. Thus ethanol could be greatly useful in the fight against other respiratory infectious diseases: “Ethanol vapor can also inactivate other enveloped viruses such as Covid-19“said Professor Hiroki Ishikawa, head of the Immune Signals Unit at OIST.”When the next pandemic comes, we may be able to quickly apply ethanol vapor inhalation therapy to prevent or cure disease.“, he explained.

He cautioned, however, against using ethanol as an individual therapy: “This could cause serious side effects or explosion hazards“, he said, before concluding that the effectiveness and safety of this new treatment for humans and other mammals must be carefully evaluated in the future.