British scientists are considering “nasal-spray” COVID-19 vaccine [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Vaccine-search frontrunners from Oxford University and Imperial College London are looking into conducting a second wave of research on “mucosal immunization.”
• British scientists Robin Shattock and Sarah Gilbert said that they are interested in providing the treatment either by intranasal delivery (via nasal pray) or aerosol delivery (via inhaler).
• According to the British scientists, the mucosal immunization could be potentially become a better way of treating COVID-19 since it directly goes into the lungs where it could access the same tissues affected by the virus.

The worldwide quest towards finding a coronavirus vaccine remains on the line as British researchers said that immunization could be more effective through the use of a nasal spray instead of an injection, based on reports.

According to the Daily Mail, Oxford University and Imperial College London Scientists, who are currently studying human trials of COVID-19 using injection-based vaccines, are considering undergoing another series of research that would investigate “mucosal immunization.”

Professor Robin Shattock, an immunologist at Imperial, told the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee that, “At the moment most of the vaccines are being delivered by conventional intramuscular injection… The reason is that’s the easiest and fastest to get off the starting blocks and into studies. But a number of us [are] interested in looking at mucosal immunization, as well.”

“And certainly [Oxford’s] Professor [Sarah] Gilbert and myself are already in discussion as to how we might be able to move that as a second wave of clinical study,” he added.

Oxford Vaccinology Professor Sarah Gilbert added that oral or nasal vaccines “would have much stronger mucosal response,” which is “probably really important in the protection against respiratory pathogens,” but she admitted that it is “very difficult to study and we’re not yet very good at measuring it.”

“But, as Professor Shattock said, we’re very interested in looking at delivery to the respiratory tract, either intranasal delivery [via a nasal spray] or aerosol delivery [using an inhaler],” Gilbert said, as reported by the Daily Mail.

“This takes the vaccine itself right down into the lungs where it can access the same tissue that would be reached by the virus infection.”

The news agency also reported that both elderly and younger people, who are at risk of dying from COVID-19, do not respond well to traditional vaccines but could potentially respond better through mucosal immunization as it directly protects the lungs.

As of posting, Oxford University is leading the crusade in finding the COVID-19 treatment. The vaccines they created are being tested on more than 10,000 people in Britain, Brazil and South Africa, according to the Daily Mail.

Source: New York Post