New Delhi: Researchers have developed a nasal anti-viral drug for COVID-19 that can reduce the spread of SARS-CoV2 from infected animals and limit its infection. By the time people are diagnosed with Covid-19, the virus has made inroads into their respiratory system.
At the same time, people remove invisible infectious elements from the body with every breath.
At present, medicines for covid-19 treatment are focused on the symptoms caused by the virus outbreak, but they have not shown much success towards preventing the spread of the infection.
Researchers from the Gladstone Institute in the US have previously developed a unique method for the treatment of infectious diseases, in which the drug is given from the nose in one dose that protects against severe infection of SARS-CoV2.
What was said in the study
In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they show that this treatment called ‘Therapeutic Interfering Particle’ (TIP) reduces the infection of the virus from infected animals and also limits its spread.
“From a historical perspective, it has been extremely challenging for antivirals and vaccines to limit the transmission of respiratory viruses,” said researcher Lior Weinbergen.
“This study shows that nasal medication in a single dose of TIP reduces the spread of the virus from animals,” he said.
Weinberger and researcher Sonali Chaturvedi treated mice with SARS-CoV2 with antiviral TIP and then measured the number of viruses in their noses daily. He observed that viruses were counted less in the noses of the treated mice each time compared to those that have not been treated.