A small study has developed that non-toxic nasal drops prevent ferret COVID-19 infection.

A nasal spray that blocks the absorption of the SARS-CoV-2 virus completely protected the ferret it was tested on, according to a small study published Thursday by an international team of scientists. This study, limited to animals and not yet peer-reviewed, was evaluated by several health professionals. New York Times..

If the spray, which scientists have described as non-toxic and stable, proves to work in humans, it may offer a new way to combat pandemics. The daily splits on the nose act like a vaccine.

Have something new that works against Coronavirus Dr. Arturo Casadeval, chair of immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was not involved in the study. “I could imagine this was part of the arsenal.”

This work has been underway for several months by scientists at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and Columbia University Medical Center.

The team needs additional funding to pursue human clinical trials. Columbia University pediatrician, microbiologist and research co-author Dr. Anne Moscona said she had applied for a patent on the product, and Columbia University is looking for a federal operational warp speed or new one. I wanted to approach the company.How to fight Coronavirus ..

The spray attacks the virus directly. It contains lipopeptides, cholesterol particles that are bound to the chains of amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins. This particular lipopeptide exactly matches the amino acid stretch of the viral spike protein used by pathogens to attach to human respiratory tract or lung cells.

Before the virus injects its RNA into cells, the spikes need to thaw effectively and expose the two strands of amino acids to fuse to the cell wall. When the spike zips back to complete the process, the lipopeptide in the spray inserts itself and latches on one of the spike’s amino acid chains, preventing the virus from adhering.

“It’s like zipping the zipper, but we can’t meet each other because we have another zipper inside,” said Matteo Porotto, a microbiologist at Columbia University and one of the authors of the treatise. I am.

The work was described in a paper submitted to the preprint server bioRxiv Posted in the journal Thursday morning Science For peer review.

Dr. Peter J. Hotez, director of national tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said the treatment looks “really promising.”

“What I want to know now is how easy it is to expand production,” he said.

In this study, 6 ferrets were sprayed and paired into 3 cages. Each cage also contained two ferrets given a placebo spray and one ferret intentionally infected with SARS-CoV-2 a day or two ago.

Ferrets are used by scientists studying influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome, and other respiratory illnesses. This is because the virus can be caught through the nose like humans, but it can also infect each other through contact with feces, scratches, and bites.

After 24 hours together, none of the sprayed ferrets got sick. Ferrets from all placebo groups did.

“Virus replication has been completely blocked,” the author writes.

According to Moscona, the protective spray attaches to cells in the nose and lungs and lasts for about 24 hours. “If this works well in humans, it’s safe to sleep in bed with an infected person or with infected children,” she said.

Amino acids come from a stretch of spiked protein Coronavirus Rarely mutated es.Scientists have also written against four different variants of the virus, including both the famous “Wuhan” and “Italy” strains. Coronavirus Es that cause SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome.

In cell culture, they were fully protected against all strains of the pandemic virus, fairly well against SARS, and partially protected against MERS.

Lipoproteins can be inexpensively produced as lyophilized white powders that do not require refrigeration, Moscona said. Your doctor or pharmacist can mix the powder with sugar and water to make nasal drops.

Other laboratories have designed antibodies and “miniproteins” that block the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering cells, but these are chemically complex and need to be stored at low temperatures. there is.

Moscona and Porotto have been working together for a similar “fusion inhibitor” peptide for 15 years, they said in a conference call. They have developed some against measles, nipa, parainfluenza and other viruses.

However, these products caused little commercial interest, as effective measles vaccines already exist and the deadly Nipah virus appears only occasionally in remote areas such as Bangladesh and Malaysia, Polott said. Stated.

Monoclonal antibody against new Coronavirus It has been shown to prevent and treat infections, but it is expensive to manufacture, requires refrigeration, and requires injection.Australian scientists tested nasal drops COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) (# If there is no character limit, add parentheses when it first appears In ferrets, however, it works by strengthening the immune system, not by directly targeting the virus.

Since lipopeptides can be shipped as dry powders, they can also be used in rural areas of poor countries where refrigeration is scarce, Moscona said.

Pediatrician Moscona, who usually works on parainfluenza and other viruses that infect children, is best at delivering products to poor countries where Americans may not have access to soon-to-be-available monoclonal antibodies and mRNA vaccines. He said he was interested. But she said she had little experience in the field.

“I’ve always been a basic scientist,” she said. “I have never developed a drug or brought anything to the FDA.”

Donald G. McNeill Jr. c.2020 New York Times Company