Nasal therapy—The missing link in optimising strategies to improve prevention and treatment of COVID-19

• Published in: PLoS pathogens 2021-11, Vol.17 (11), p.e1010079-e1010079
• Main Authors: Ratcliffe, Norman A, Castro, Helena C, Paixão, Izabel C, Evangelho, Victor G. O, Azambuja, Patricia, Mello, Cicero B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal models; Antibodies; Biology and Life Sciences; Clinical trials; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccines; Disease prevention; Disease transmission; Drugs; FDA approval; Immunoglobulin G; Immunoglobulin M; Immunoglobulins; Infections; Influenza; Intranasal medication; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mist; Monoclonal antibodies; Nose; Opinion; Pathogens; Public health; Respiratory tract; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Vaccination; Vaccines; Viral diseases; Viral infections; Viruses
• ISSN: 1553-7374; 1553-7366; 1553-7374
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010079

Only natural infections induce both IgG1to protect the lungs as well as IgA1 to protect the upper respiratory tract, including the nasal passages [16]. [...]injected vaccines fail to fully address the main portal of virus entry into the body through the nose, and, yet, few, if any, drugs have been developed to kill the virus in this early stage. [...]a live attenuated flu nasal spray vaccine, called Flu Mist, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), although the results of clinical trials have been discordant [28]. [...]the nasal delivery of IgG monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 engineered into immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies protect against virus variants in rats [30], while intranasal vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine, AZD1222, reduces virus concentrations in nasal swabs in 2 different SARS-CoV-2 animal models [31]. [...]nasal therapy has great potential to prevent and treat a variety of respiratory viruses.