Preclinical studies suggest a drug-free nasal spray could ward off respiratory infections
www.eurekalert.org
A new study details how a nasal spray formulated by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, may work to protect against viral and bacterial respiratory infections

The spray is called "Pathogen Capture and Neutralizing Spray" (PCANS) for now

This data suggest PCANS as a promising daily-use prophylactic against respiratory infections.

The study is paywalled, and the abstract doesn't list its ingredients beyond

The formulation consists of excipients identified from the FDA's Inactive Ingredient Database and Generally Recognized as Safe list to maximize efficacy for each step in the multi-modal approach.

Based on that description, its ingredients might not be very different from Covixyl, though it claims to be much more effective.

Edit: Apparently its already for sale, I included some details in a comment

  • Sulvor [he/him, undecided]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Paywalled scientific studies are cursed. Also, don't get your hopes up, you can probably accomplish the same thing with a saline gel nasal spray you can get for 5 bucks at the drugstore.

    Edit: Sorry for being so dismissive initially.

    • sovietknuckles [they/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I don't know how saline gel nasal sprays compare, but of existing nasal sprays, carrageenan (80% risk reduction) > hypromellose (78% risk reduction) > nitric oxide (75% risk reduction) > xylitol (62% risk reduction) according to the Clean Air Club, so nasal sprays aren't all just the same thing.

      • Sulvor [he/him, undecided]
        ·
        2 months ago

        In case people want to look at the studies being cited. The carrageenan and xylitol studies actually have placebo groups.

        The hypromellose study is really bad, run by the CEO and VP of the company producing the product. Saying things like:

        To our knowledge this is the first time that any measure to prevent infection in SARS-CoV-2 virus was proven effective beyond the use of masks.

        D Megiddo is the CEO of Nasus Pharma, the manufacturer of Taffix. T Lapidot is the VP clinical of Nasus Pharma, the manufacturer of Taffix.

        Both the hypromellose and nitric oxide studies relied on people administering it themselves and had no placebo groups. Basically the people who volunteered to take and use (self-reporting as well, instead of being administered by the researchers) the products are the same people who were already washing their hands, masking, etc.

        Carrageenan

        Hypromellose

        Nitric Oxide

        Xylitol

        Honestly I was pretty surprised with the carrageenan study, seems worthwhile.

        These other studies on carrageenan are incredibly dense, which is a good sign, but I also can't really go through them thoroughly in any reasonable amount of time, but this stuff seems very good.

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001860/

        https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8709357/#B35-ijms-22-13202

        • NoLeftLeftWhereILive
          ·
          2 months ago

          Coming in with the anecdotes, but I've done a public facing job with often just the carrageenan spray as prevention in small unventilated spaces face to face with clients for 6 months now and never got sick from work.

          I did get covid, but from family via my partner at home.

          The last time I had to spend an hour with a visibly sick person was at the start of this week and so far so good. Might be immunity too from having just had covid a little over a month ago though. I wish masking was ok in my work, but it's not.

          But considering how high risk my work is and how all my co-workers sure are sick all the time and I'm not, it makes me think the spray might at least be helping. I also avoid gatherings and have an air purifier on my desk, I also don't people on my freetime. So there are many reasons for this as well.

    • booty [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      so, simple question, what the hell is a nasal spray and how is it supposed to protect you from viruses?

      • Sulvor [he/him, undecided]
        ·
        2 months ago

        Gel sprays basically do the same thing your own snot is doing. Physically catch and trap particles/viruses and stop them from entering your body.

        The saline gel spray I was talking about would just be a physical barrier, but the other ones we were talking about have some ingredient to actively kill viruses on top of being a barrier.

        • booty [he/him]
          ·
          2 months ago

          so it's enhanced snot.

          ultrasnot

          H Y P E R S N O T

          that's pretty sick, science is cool