Berlin. A corona vaccination through the nose could be a milestone in breaking corona waves. Studies show advantages over mRNA vaccines.
A functioning nasal vaccine against the coronavirus is considered by experts to be a possible milestone in the fight against Sars-Cov-2. The vaccine administered via the mucous membrane could fundamentally change the situation by ending the phenomenon of reinfection after vaccination and infection. Now there is increasing scientific evidence that these hopes are justified.
Nasal vaccines are not injected through the arm or buttock muscles like protein or mRNA vaccines, but are sprayed or inhaled. They are intended to Immune defense stimulate the pathogens directly at the point of entry and thus, ideally, inhibit an infection. Viruses could be prevented more effectively from entering the body in the first place. In addition, they could reduce the transmission of the virus.
Corona vaccination via nasal spray: Researchers are confident that a mucous membrane vaccination could significantly change the corona situation. © dpa | Oliver Berg
This is exactly where the Deficits of the vaccines in use: When these are injected, immunity builds up primarily in the blood and is distributed throughout the body. It is not very pronounced in the mucous membranes.
Corona: “We need local immunity”
This means that the immune system fights coronaviruses in Emergency discovered and combated relatively late – because they penetrate the body through the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract. Although the injected vaccines protect against serious disease progression with a relatively high degree of effectiveness, they do not protect against reinfection or against the transmission of the virus.
“If we want to catch a respiratory virus at an early stage, we need local immunity in the mucous membranes and respiratory tract,” says Prof. Jakob Trimpert, a veterinarian and, until his move to the USA, head of a working group at the Institute of Virology at the Free University of Berlin. Together with colleagues from the Max Delbrück Center and Charité, Trimpert has developed a mucous membrane vaccine against corona. The vaccine is a Live vaccinewhich contains weakened pathogens that are still viable and can multiply, but do not cause illness.
Best protection through double vaccination through the nose
The scientists tested the effect of the newly developed nasal Covid-19 vaccine on hamsters. The animals are still the most important Model organism for Covid-19 because they can be infected with the same virus variants as humans and develop similar symptoms.
The result, which can be read in Fachjournal „Nature Microbiology“the live vaccine performed better in all parameters than the comparison vaccines. best protection was able to achieve a double vaccination via the nose, followed by the combination of an injection of an mRNA vaccine into the muscle and the subsequent nasal administration of the live vaccine.
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“In fact, our vaccine is approaching clinical trials in humans. The American health authority NIH recently agreed to support the clinical phase,” writes Jakob Trimpert in response to a request from this editorial team. Studies will also take place in the USA.
100 to 100,000 times fewer viruses in the respiratory tract
Trimpert believes that a nasally administered vaccine would have a significantly better effect promises. “Our latest results in the animal model indicate a much better effect in terms of preventing infection with and spread of Sars-CoV-2,” says the researcher. “I am very excited about the clinical trials and believe that intramuscular vaccines have a good chance of replacing intramuscular mRNA vaccines.”
Further hopeful news about these vaccines comes from the USA. A nasal vaccine developed by the Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis) and the Indian company Bharat, which has even been available since autumn 2022, Emergency approval in India, was able to enter a new Study show: Nasally vaccinated hamsters were able to break the corona transmission cycle.
The reason for this, according to the researchers, is mucosal immunity. Intentionally infected animals that had previously been vaccinated through the nose had 100 to 100,000 times fewer viruses in the respiratory tract than those vaccinated through the muscles. “The reduction was sufficient to rule out subsequent transmission to vaccinated and unvaccinated hamsters,” the scientists write. This means that the vaccine could actually limit the spread of the virus in the population.
This spread of Sars-CoV-2 in the population had once again led to a Wave of disease Although there were only a few serious cases, Corona continued to lead to many visits to the doctor, days off work and long-term consequences.
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