Will nasal vaccines be a great weapon against Covid? How do they work?
Because of the protection they provide nasal vaccines may be the
best long-term way to prevent infection with COVID-19.
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| Administering Meissa’s vaccine. Image: Cayce Clifford - Bloomberg Businessweek |
India-based Bharat Biotech, which has the Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine
authorized in India and elsewhere, has an experimental COVID-19 nasal vaccine
that may offer even stronger protection than injectable vaccines, The New York Times reported.
Previous arguments have suggested potential advantages ofintranasal vaccines over intramuscular vaccines. They stimulate the production
of immunoglobulin A that fight infection as explained in a 2021 Science
American article. Intranasal vaccines provide mucosal immunity to reduce the
chances of the virus becoming entrenched in the respiratory tract because the
coronavirus first reaches the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract.
The New York Times reports that at least a dozen other nasal
vaccines are in development worldwide, but Bharat Biotechs offering is
potentially the first of the lot to become available after it won approval last
month to begin a Phase 3 trial in India, with the nasal spray to be used a
booster for people who have already received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
In addition to the potential scientific benefits of intranasal
vaccines in fighting viruses, practical benefits further strengthen their case.
The New York Times said that vaccinating the population with nasal or oral
vaccines would be faster than injections because injections require more skill
and time. In addition, nasal vaccines would be more appealing especially for children, and would eliminate
problems related to shortages of needles, syringes, and other components of
injectable vaccines.
According to Bloomberg, Marty Moore says he can defeat it by
spraying the vaccine in people's noses instead of injecting it in the arm.
Moore is the chief executive officer of Meissa Vaccines, a
California-based biotech that has one of a half-dozen or so Covid nasal spray
candidates in clinical trials around the world. While current covid shots offer
strong protection against hospitalization and death, they lose effectiveness
against the infection over time and new forms emerge. They mainly create immune
protection in your lymph nodes and blood, not where the virus enters the body.
The nasal spray is designed to deliver Covid-ready antibodies and B and T cells
into your nose and throat, like standing guards in front of a building rather
than inside it.
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| Marty Moore. Image: Cayce Clifford - Bloomberg Businessweek |
In the early 2000s Moore dedicated his life to the fight against
respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV kills tens of thousands of children worldwide
every year. Eventually he came up with a new way to weaken and attenuate the
virus in one of the most powerful yet challenging ways to create a vaccine by
creating a version that can’t hide from the immune system. In theory, getting
dosed with large amounts of this mutated version of RSV could reduce the risk
of getting sick and elicit a strong immune response.
Moore started making Covid products by sticking the coronavirus
spike protein onto the RSV shell.
Bloomberg reports that the Meissa Covid spray has shown goodresults in monkeys and promising preliminary data in humans. The company
expects full results from human trials this year. It has already recruited
participants and tested it as robust and plans to start a study with children
soon. Finally this product is especially suitable for children who are afraid
of needles and contribute to the spread of most respiratory diseases.
"You're going to want this, because it’s
the endgame,” Moore says. Boosters of the current vaccines will reduce
infections, but only temporarily, like tapping snooze on an alarm clock. “Then
it just repeats,” he says. “If you want to stop hitting the snooze button, we
need to actually block transmission,” Tim Loh, Bloomberg.
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