Antibody-loaded nasal spray can protect and treat COVID-19

According to the study published in the scientific journal natureAnd the A nasal spray loaded with a tailored antibody provides powerful protection against SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variants, at least in mice.

Since the early days of the pandemic, scientists have developed antibodies as a treatment for COVID-19. Currently, Many of these antibodies are in late-stage clinical trialsSome regulatory agencies in the United States and elsewhere have approved its use in emergency situations.

However, among physicians, “Antibody therapies weren’t very popular“, to me Qiqiang An, an antibody engineer at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. This is partly because those that are available are given through an intravenous injection rather than directly into the respiratory tract, where the virus is found in the first place, so High doses are needed to be effective. Another challenge is the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants that appear to be resistant to some of the existing antibodies..

That’s why Ann and his colleagues set out to design an antibody that could be administered directly into the nose.. They scanned a library of healthy human antibodies and focused on those that can recognize a component of SARS-CoV-2 that the virus uses to attach to and enter cells. Among the most promising candidates IgG . antibody, which are relatively slow to appear after infection, but are specifically designed for invasive pathogens.

The team attached portions of IgG targeting SARS-CoV-2 to a different type of molecule: an IgM antibody., which act as a rapid first responder to a wide range of infections. The transgenic IgMs had a much stronger ‘neutralizing’ effect against more than 20 SARS-CoV-2 variants than did IgGs alone. The research team reported that when injected into the nose of mice six hours before or six hours after infection, immunoglobulins (IgMs) significantly reduced the amount of virus in the lungs of the rodents two days after infection.

This post is an “amazing feat of engineering.”, Opinion Guy GuruchovImmunologist at the Sorbonne University in Paris. But add that There are open questions, such as how long these antibodies remain in humans.

The expert from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston envisions these antibodies as a kind of chemical mask that anyone exposed to SARS-CoV-2 can wear, and as an additional line of defense for people who may not be. Fully protected by vaccines. Because IgM particles are relatively stable, it may be possible to formulate them into a nasal spray bought at the pharmacy and stored for emergency use., explicó An.

IGM Biosciences, a biotechnology company in Mountain View, Calif., that collaborated on the An study, will test this antibody in clinical trials.

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