NBC News
A free sale spray that has been used for years as a safe and effective treatment for seasonal allergies could prevent Covid-19 infections, according to the results of a clinical trial published on Tuesday.
More and more studies show that Azelastin antihistamine It acts as an antiviral against a series of respiratory infections, including influenza, the respiratory virus (VRS) and the virus caused by COVID-19.
German scientists at the Saarland University Hospital recruited 450 adults, mostly in their 30 years. A first group of 227 participants tested a dose of spray in each nasal pit, three times a day. The other 223 were asked to do the same, but with a placebo.
Everyone was given rapid COVID-19 tests twice a week, for almost two months. For the end of the test, the incidence of Covid-19 infections in the Azelastina Espray group was 2.2%, much less than 6.7% of the group that used the placebo.
Azelastina also seems to reduce the infections of other symptomatic respiratory infections, found the study published in the scientific journal Jama Internal Medicine.
The researchers are not sure why Azelastina was effective in limiting infections by COVID-19, but suggested that it could join the virus in the nasal mucosa-the humid membrane that covers the nose and through which pathogens must pass to enter the body-and inhibit a key enzyme that it uses to replicate.
Another possibility is that the azelastina interacts with the ACE2 receptor, the preferred entry point used by the COVID-19 virus to access human cells, and prevents you from adhering.
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“Our findings suggest that Azelastin could serve as a free and scalable sales prophylactic against COVID, especially when community transmission is high or in high -risk environments, such as massive events in closed enclosures or trips,” said Dr. Robert Bals, professor of internal medicine and pneumology at the University of Saarland, and main author of the study.
It is not a replacement for vaccines
The essay has some limitations, mainly that all participants were young and relatively healthy, he said.
Bals assured that Azelastin should not be considered as a replacement for vaccines and that more studies were needed before recommending it as a preventive routine measure for the general public, especially in vulnerable groups.
Dr. William Messer, Professor of Molecular Microbiology, at the Oregon University of Health and Sciences, which did not participate in the essay, described the results as “reasonably convincing” to reduce the general risk, but pointed out the intense dose dose regime of the trial and wondered if it would not be easier to carry a mask to prevent infections.
“The mask can be more uncomfortable and annoying, but it could be easier than remembering a nasal spray three times a day, day after day,” said Messer. Even so, “I would not discourage anyone who is interested in trying it,” he said.
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Other researchers believe that more data is missing that demonstrate that spray is effective in high -risk groups, such as older adults and immunosuppressed people, who are the ones who need the most measures to prevent infections.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor at the Infectious Diseases Division of the UCSF Health, said that Azelastina could find a niche as an additional tool to block COVID-19 in people who already use the spray for seasonal allergies, but considered that there is not enough evidence to recommend it more generalized.
“Although promising, I don’t think it’s time to recommend it to stop transmission,” he wrote in an email. “For those of 65 years or more I would continue to recommend vaccines as an option number one against Covid.”
However, Chin-Hong said that the results of this trial provide more indications that the nasal mucosa could be a vital objective for future vaccines against COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses as a better way to block infections.
“Current vaccines against COVID clearly do not do a good job protecting against infections,” he said. “We need more mucous vaccines for respiratory viruses. There is one that is widely used for influenza and there are efforts to work in mucous vaccines for the coronavirus, but we need to continue advocating so that the government gives priority and support to these initiatives.”
