Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are ditching the vaccine needle for a nasal spray that reportedly can block the spread of COVID-19. A new study found that vaccines that target points of entry can contain the spread of respiratory infections and prevent transmission.
Dr. Jacco Boon said that needle-based vaccines are not as effective as ones administered through the nose and mouth.
“This mucosal vaccine, unlike the injectable vaccine, did prevent transmissions from the infected individual to, for example, your partner or other members of the household,” he said. “This is what we’re trying to model.”
The challenge he faces is that it’s difficult for nasal vaccines to control virus levels in the nose, not to mention which specific virus strain the vaccine targets. Through his work experimenting on hamsters, Boon found that people who were given the nasal vaccine did not pass the virus onto others.
“The nose and the mouth are the point of entry,” he added. “So having these cells and these antibodies present right there where the virus comes in is really critical for the most effective vaccines against these viruses.”
But the nasal vaccine triggers an immune response in the nose and upper airway – where the virus enters the body.
“By reducing the titer (particle) 100- to 1000-fold, we’re much less likely to be severely ill,” Boon said. “It may just be a subclinical infection or even a very mild disease. But again, the most striking fact of that reduction is that the virus titers (particles) are not high enough to allow transmission.”
The nasal vaccine has been approved for use in India. Wash-U, meanwhile, licensed the technology to an American biotech company in hopes of developing a vaccine in the U.S. and Europe.
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