US researchers have developed a synthetic aerosol that is said to be able to neutralize corona viruses entering the respiratory tract – via nasal spray or inhaler. You can read with us what kind of substance it is and how far the development of corresponding products is.
The pathogen SARS-CoV-2 primarily triggers a corona infection via the respiratory tract. Various hygiene measures (keeping your distance from others, wearing a mouth and nose protector) are intended to prevent him from getting in there. If it did happen anyway, infection could still be averted in the future: with a nasal spray or inhaler. A specific synthetic molecule in the form of an aerosol should make this possible.
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Synthetic aerosol is said to neutralize corona viruses
By using appropriate nasal sprays or inhalers, invading corona viruses should be neutralized, i.e. rendered harmless. This potential research breakthrough (read the preprint server BioRxiv) happened at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The scientists involved want to have examined more than two billion synthetic molecules for their effect on the corona virus. A molecule called mNB6-tri was said to be the most effective against SARS-CoV-2.
Nasal spray against corona infection?
mNB6-tri is composed of three different so-called nanobodies. The term nanobodies is derived from the very small size of the molecules. Due to the corresponding «nano format», the molecules are suitable for use in the respiratory tract, via aerosol spray.
Nanobodies are similar in function and shape to the antibodies in the human body. However, they are significantly smaller, as UCSF researcher Dr. Aashish Manglik explained. The health portal «Aponet» has summarized its more detailed explanations. According to Manglik, they are stable, easy and inexpensive to modify, which is why they should be well suited for research purposes.
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The road to the product is still long
So far, the researchers can only look back on promising test results. Before they can go into the production of aerosol nasal sprays and inhalers, their formulation still has to go through clinical studies (including with regard to tolerability). But there is already a product name: AeroNabs, a word combination of aerosols (= fine suspended particles, by definition smaller than five micrometers) and nanobodies.