A nasal spray against Coronavirus? It could be one of the solutions, apparently among the simplest and most immediate, to fight the battle against Covid 19. The news comes from theAustralia where the experimentation of a treatment that is as elementary as, according to the first results, effective is underway. A nasal spray to be applied topically. Acts on this first respiratory tract (where most infections originate) activating important immune defense mechanisms. If the experimentation is successful, you can think about using this spray for the Coronavirus. But also for other major viral respiratory infections like the flu or even common colds.
The nasal spray activates the immune response by reducing the replication of the virus
A project funded by the Australian federal government and private pharmaceutical companies made this research possible. With the prospect of starting to produce the spray as soon as possible locally and then broadening its distribution. The novelty is called INNA-051 and was developed by the biotech house Ena Respiratory. The private companies competing in the Australian government-sponsored Biomedical Translation Fund are BioScience Managers, OneVentures Healthcare Fund and lenders Brandon Capital Partners.
We are talking about a product whose effectiveness can represent a useful complement to vaccination. According to the website of the Australian biotechnology company Ena Respiratory who is developing it, INNA-051 would reduce viral replication by up to 96 percent in a gold-standard animal study led by Professor Miles Carroll, Deputy Director of Public Health England (PHE). How? By stimulating the immune system which is the first line of defense against pathogens.
The first results of the experimentation are encouraging
“By increasing the immune response in this way with INNA-051 before infection - he explains - the ability of the COVID-19 virus to infect animals and replicate has been drastically reduced. “We were amazed by the effectiveness of our treatment,” adds Christophe Demaison, CEO of Ena Respiratory. "By increasing the ferrets' natural immune response, we have seen rapid elimination of the virus." If the answer is similar in humans as well, “The benefits of the treatment would be twofold. Individuals exposed to the virus would most likely clear it quickly and the disease would not progress beyond mild symptoms. This could be particularly important for the most vulnerable. Furthermore, the rapidity of the response would make it difficult for infected people to transmit the virus. There would therefore be a rapid decline in the transmission of the same ".
If the vaccine therefore remains the primary target but targeted to a specific strain, INNA-051 is designed to be effective with all types of respiratory infections, it is explained on the ENA website. Therefore a antiviral broad spectrum whose effective potential could be very significant even in the face of possible mutations of the virus. The study authors include scientists from Public Health England (PHE), Ena Respiratory and leading Australian research organizations, the Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle and the University of Melbourne.
(photo by NIAID is under-licensed CC BY 2.0, By wuestenigel is under-licensed CC)
