Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Nose spray
Nose spray - Credit: Garetsworkshop / DepositPhotos - License: DepositPhotos
Health
Tech
Science
antiviral
nose spray
Coronavirus
Erasmusm MC
ferret
clinical trial
Rory de Vries
Thursday, 18 February 2021 - 12:31
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Rotterdam researchers' nose spray could prevent Covid infection

Researchers at Erasmus MC helped develop an antiviral that in nose spray form protects ferrets against a coronavirus infection for 24 hours. Studies on humans are now being prepared, researcher and virologist Rory de Vries of Erasmus MC said to NOS.

The researchers first infected three ferrets with the coronavirus and put them in three separate cages. Six ferrets were then given the nose spray containing the antiviral, and six others were given a placebo nose spray. These 12 ferrets were then divided into the three cages containing the infected ferrets, where they spent 24 hours.

Afterwards, the ferrets that received the placebo all contracted the coronavirus, while the ferrets that received the antiviral were not infected. Three weeks later, the ferrets were tested for coronavirus antibodies. The ferrets that got he placebo had them, and the animals that got the antiviral didn't.

The antiviral works by preventing the coronavirus from entering cells. In order to get into a cell, the virus must first attach to a cell with its spike-protein. The spike-protein then has to change shape so that the virus and cell can fuse together. "To change shape, two pieces of the spike protein has to zip together, as it were," De Vries explained. "Our agent blocks one of the two pieces of zipper, so that it no longer works and the virus does not enter the cell."

"We are in the early development phase and now want to investigate whether this also works on humans," De Vries said. "So we are not talking about a drug that will be on the market next week." The studies on humans will mainly be carried out by colleagues in the United states, he said.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • One worker killed, four hurt in Zeeland Refinery accident
  • Left-wing parties want to retroactively tax Shell's record profits more heavily
  • Container ship crews play a key role in cocaine trade via Dutch ports
  • Regional train drivers to join next week's public transport strike
  • No excess mortality in last two weeks of January
  • Delft students present world's "most efficient" hydrogen car

Top stories

  • Signal failure briefly halts train traffic around A'dam; NS warns of significant delays
  • Matching medicine dosage to patient's DNA can cut side effects 30%: LUMC
  • Dutch airports' traveler numbers not yet back to pre-pandemic levels in 2022
  • Dutch parliamentarians support €57 rent reduction for low-income households
  • European office to gather proof of war crimes in Ukraine will set up in The Hague
  • Nine suspects arrested in Netherlands for 50 ATM bombings in Germany

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content