This nasal spray is able to avoid the contagion of the virus – El Financiero

A group of scientists from Columbia University in New York created an aerosol compound, sprayed through the nose, which could prevent SARS-CoV-2 virus infection.

The sprays developed by the experts would be fast-acting and applied frequently, as such COVID-19 treatment is short-lived and helps directly block the virus’s ability to enter cells, so it should be applied at least twice a day.

The spray developed by the researchers blocks the machinery of the virus to fuse with a host cell, which prevents the virus from transferring its genetic load into the cell and hence avoid infection.

Although several research groups have shown that aerosols are effective in preventing COVID-19 in animals, “if effective in humans, such compounds would be a welcome addition to the limited arsenal that researchers have developed against the virus. Aerosols could offer people another way to avoid infection in addition to or instead of wearing a face mask, especially in high-risk environments such as hospitals and restaurants. She told Donna Farber magazine, an immunologist at Columbia University. Nature.

Prophylactic sprays made by researchers have a simpler job than conventional antivirals, such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid, which are used within the first few days of an infection.

Stopping a single virus particle from infecting a cell is “a much simpler task than countering the effects of millions of virus particles (time after infection),” said Barclay. Nature.

To test the spray, the experts administered it to the ferrets’ noses once a day for two days and housed the treated animals along with another SARS-CoV-2 infected ferret. None of the six ferrets who were given the peptide were infected with the virus, while the six ferrets who were given a dose of placebo did, according to Nature.