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A nasal vaccine effectively prevents the transmission of COVID-19

 

The pandemic of COVID-19 has caught the world on fire! Not in the literal sense of the term, but it’s just plain breathing of SARS-CoV-2 virus that leads to the development of this deadly disease in the human body. Currently, most people across the world are aware of vaccines that fight COVID-19. These vaccines are injected through intramuscular route and not through the nose, although the virus simply enters the body through the nose. Most notable companies manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines are Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.

Scientists believe that nasal vaccine would be more effective in battling COVID-19. This is because the mucosal lining of the nose will develop immunity against the virus, preventing it from entering the body and attacking the lungs. Recently, iScience journal has reported about how biomedical researchers of the University of Houston have developed a subunit of an intranasal vaccine. This vaccine is quite effective in boosting the immunity of the nose against pathogens inhaled by breathing.

These researchers believe that nasal vaccines are non-invasive, boosting both systemic immunity and the immunity of the mucosal lining of the nose. A large population of subjects can be immunized by nasal vaccines. However, they also highlighted a major drawback of nasal vaccines. Antigens cannot be efficiently delivered by mucosal route of vaccination. Moreover, these vaccines need to include suitable adjuvants that boost the immune system effectively without causing any toxic reaction in the subject’s body.

To solve the drawbacks of nasal vaccines, these researchers worked together with nanoparticle experts at the pharmaceutical college affiliated with the University of Houston, Texas. The team of pharmacists successfully captured the agonist that stimulated interferon genes (STING), which were present within liposomes of cells. Thus, they produced the adjuvant and christened it as NanoSTING. The immune response of the human body was stimulated by the adjuvant. The size of a NanoSTING particle is very small at about 100 nm. Nevertheless, it possesses properties that are completely different from that of a normal adjuvant.

 

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SARS-CoV-2 infection can now be controlled by a combination of new drugs

 

Although developed countries have now relaxed the rules of lockdown, the pandemic of COVID-19 is now complicated with an even more severe infection of SARS-CoV-2. This infection would have impeded the bounce back to normal life had there been no effective drugs to control the situation. However, this significant threat is now averted by some breakthroughs in recent research studies. Scientists have developed a combination of drugs named Nafamostat and Pegasys to control the pandemic. They are easy to use, effective, and fulfill the criteria of availability.

Laboratory synthesis of combination drugs

The combination of drugs named Nafamostat and Pegasys were quite effective in suppressing the life-threatening infection of SARS-CoV-2. These drugs were tested at the Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norweigan University of Science and Technology. A special cell culture was prepared to perform this experiment. The results indicated that the combination of drugs were quite effective, indicating that it is fit for human consumption.

Currently, COVID-19 infection is being controlled by administering monotherapy of Nafamostat. The efficacy of this drug is being extensively tested in laboratories of Japan and other Asian countries. Erstwhile, Pegasys was used to treat patients with hepatitis C. A combination of these two drugs seemed to have a positive impact on patients suffering from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

There is a factor named TMPRSS2 in our cells. It causes the replication of SARS-CoV-2 virus in cells. The combination drugs of Nafamostat and Pegasys effectively attacks this factor in cells, according to a leading professor of molecular biology at the laboratory.  This observation has become a major good news for researchers who are determining how effective is Nafamostat drug against COVID-19 infection.

A low dosage of combination drugs is needed against SARS-CoV-2 infection

The combination of Nafamostat and Pegasys drug is needed to low doses to tackle the serious infection of SARS-CoV-2. Not only has the clinical outcome of patients been positive, the side-effects of this combination therapy been minimum. These clinical advantages have been highlighted by a leading researcher at the laboratory. Although the combination of drugs is not cheap, it is indeed quite inexpensive. Thus, these life-saving drugs can be rendered to patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 all across the world. The only limitation is the fact that Pegasys drug is quite costly.

Scientists all across the world are working hard in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused 4.55 million deaths all across the world. Moreover, there are many remote areas in this world where the cause of death is not known accurately, leading to a growing number of deaths unreported. Although an international team of researchers worked at the laboratory, the cohort of patients was only from Norway.