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WASHINGTON: Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and biotechnology firm Regeneron are investigating whether technology developed for gene therapy can be used to make a nasal spray that prevents infection with the new coronavirus.
The idea is to use a weakened virus as a delivery truck to carry genetic instructions to cells within the nose and throat, which in turn will create powerful antibodies to prevent SARS-CoV-2 from invading our bodies.
“The advantage of our approach is that you don’t need a competent immune system for this to be effective,” James Wilson, a professor of medicine at Penn who leads the project, told AFP.
The technology is currently being tested in animals, and Wilson believes that if successful, it could provide people around six months of protection with a single dose, sprayed through the nose, and therefore complement vaccines that could soon be approved. .
Wilson is a pioneer of gene therapy – delivering genetic code into a patient’s cells to correct defects and treat disease.
His research team discovered that the Adeno-Associated Viruses (AAV) group of viruses, which infect both humans and other primates but are not known to cause disease, can be designed to carry healthy DNA into cells.
This approach led to the approval of Zolgensma, the first drug for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, in 2019, and AAVs are currently being investigated for dozens of more possible applications.
Wilson was contacted by the United States government in February to see if he and his lab could use the technology against COVID-19.
But it wasn’t until Regeneron developed two promising lab-made antibodies to the coronavirus, which bind to a protein on the pathogen’s surface and prevent it from invading our cells, that his team was able to move on.
Regeneron’s antibodies are in clinical trials, but have received emergency approval for mild or moderate COVID-19 patients who are at high risk for severe illness, and were recently used to treat President Donald Trump.
The researchers hope that the nasal spray can be sprayed through the nostrils, enter the nasal epithelial cells and hijack their protein-making machinery to produce Regeneron antibodies.
Normally, only immune cells create antibodies, which makes the new idea a particularly innovative approach.
Since the coronavirus enters the lungs through the nasal passage, the spray could stop the infection in its tracks.
What’s more, AAVs cause only a mild immune response, so side effects could be less severe than pioneer vaccines, which work by training the immune system to recognize a key protein in the virus.
Penn and Regeneron hope to complete their animal studies by January, before applying to the Food and Drug Administration to begin human trials.
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