A small study released Thursday by an international team of scientists says a nasal spray, which inhibits the absorption of the SARS-Cavi-2 virus, is fully tested on ferrets. The study, which was limited to animals and has not yet been peer-reviewed, was assessed by several health experts at the request of The New York Times.
If the spray, which scientists described as nootoxic and stable, proves to work in humans, it could provide a new way to fight the epidemic. It will work like a vaccine sprayed on the nose every day.
“There’s something new stimulant that works against the coronavirus,” said Dr. Art, president of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Immunology. Arturo Casadeval, who was not involved in the study, said. “I can imagine this is part of the arsenal.”
The study was carried out for months by scientists from Columbia University Medical Center in New York, Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and Cornell University in Anthony, Ithaca. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Columbia University Medical Center.
The team will need additional funding to conduct clinical trials in humans. Colombian pediatrician and microbiologist Dr. Vani and co-author of the study, Dr. Anne’s Moscow said they had applied for a patent on the product, and hoped Columbia University would speed up the federal government’s Operation Operation and Spear or approach the major pharmaceutical companies that are seeking it. New ways to fight coronavirus.
The spray directly attacks the virus. It contains a lipopeptide, a cholesterol particle associated with a chain of amino acids, building blocks of protein. This specific lipopeptide corresponds exactly to the pull of amino acids in the spike protein of the virus, which is used to attach the pathogen to human airways or lung cells.
In a virus cell its RNA Before injection, the spike must effectively pull out two chains of amino acids to fuse the cell wall. By backing up the spike zip to complete the process, the lipopeptide in the spray inserts itself, hanging one of the spike’s amino acid chains and preventing the virus from attaching.
“It’s like you’re zipping the zipper but you put the other zipper inside, so the two sides can’t meet,” said Matteo Porotto, a microbiologist at Columbia University and one of the paper’s authors.
The work was described in a paper posted on the printprint server Bioroxiv on Thursday morning, and has been submitted to the Science Journal for peer review.
Dr. Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. Peter J. Hotez said the treatment felt “really promising.”
“All I need to know now is how easy it is to measure a product,” he said.
In the study, six sprays were given, which were then divided into pairs and placed in three cages. Each cage also carried two ferrets that were given a placebo spray and one ferret that was intentionally infected by a stork-cove-2 a day or two earlier.
Ferrets are used by scientists studying the flu, SARS and other respiratory diseases because they can catch the virus through the nose just like humans, although they do infect each other by contact with feces or by itching and biting.
After 24 hours together, none of the sprayed ferrets were able to catch the disease; All placebo-group ferrets did.
The authors wrote, “The copy of the virus was completely blocked.
The protective spray attaches to the cells of the nose and lungs and lasts about 24 hours, said Dr. Moscow said. “If it works well in humans, you can sleep in bed with someone infected or be with your infected children and still be safe,” he said.
The amino acid in the coronavirus comes from the pull of a spike protein that is rarely converted. Scientists tested it against four different types of viruses, including the well-known “Wuhan” and “Italian” strains, as well as the coronavirus that causes SARS and MERS.
In cell cultures, it is completely protected against all strains of the epidemic virus, fairly well against SARS and partially against MERS.
Lipoprotein can be produced cheaply as a freeze-dry white powder, said Dr. Moscow. A doctor or pharmacist may mix the powder with sugar and water to produce a nasal spray.
Other labs have designed antibodies and “mini-proteins” that prevent the SARS-Co-2 virus from entering cells, but these are chemically more complex and may need to be stored at colder temperatures.
Dr. Moscow and Dr. Porotto has been collaborating on similar “fusion inhibitor” peptides for 15 years, they said in a conference call. They have developed some against measles, mumps, parainfluenza and other viruses.
Dr Porotto said there was less commercial interest in these products because the effective measles vaccine already existed and because the deadly Nipah virus is only occasionally replaced in remote places like Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Monoclonal antibodies to the new coronavirus have been shown to prevent infection as well as treat it, but it is expensive to make, requires refrigeration, and must be injected. Australian scientists have tested a nasal spray against Covid-19 in ferrites, but it works by boosting the immune system, not by directly targeting the virus.
ड l. Lipopeptides can be shipped as dry powder, so it can be used even in poor countries in rural areas that lack refrigeration, Moscow said.
Dr. Mos. A pediatrician from Moscow who usually works on parainfluenza and other viruses that infect children, said he was very interested in getting the product in poorer countries where Americans could not get vaccinated with monoclonal antibodies and mRNA soon. But she has little experience in that area, he said.
