A Nasal Spray May Be the Answer to Combating Coronavirus
A team of scientists from Columbia University Medical Center in New York, Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, Cornell University and the University of Campania in Italy have developed “a nasal spray that blocks the absorption of the coronavirus completely protected ferrets it was tested on, according to a small study released Thursday” which has not yet been peer-reviewed, but was assessed by several health experts at the request of The New York Times.
The spray attacks the virus directly and contains a specific lipopeptide that matches a stretch of amino acids in the spike protein of the virus, “which the pathogen uses to attach to a human airway or lung cell.” The protective spray attaches to cells in the nose and lungs and lasts about 24 hours. If the spray proves to work in humans, it could provide a new way to fight the pandemic.
“Having something new that works against the coronavirus is exciting,” Dr. Arturo Casadevall, the chairman of immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was not involved in this study, said. “I could imagine this being part of the arsenal.”
Read the full study here.
