A researcher is developing a nasal spray with specially made proteins that could protect against COVID-19.
David Baker thinks it’s possible to create a similar spray that protects against even more viruses.
But it will still be a while before this nasal spray cocktail is available.
A well-known researcher has developed a nasal spray that he hopes will protect people from COVID-19. For him, this is a first step toward his ultimate goal of developing a virus-fighting cocktail that could be effective against several common infections.
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The spray, which David Baker is developing at the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, is intended to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus from penetrating the cells at all and activating the immune system.
Baker’s lab plans to begin initial human testing of the nasal spray later this year to determine the drug’s safety and effectiveness. The lab has already achieved promising results in mice.
If it works, Baker wants to take the idea one step further. What if a nasal spray could not only protect against COVID-19, but also against the flu or a cold? Baker believes that a cocktail of proteins sprayed up a person’s nose every few days could provide effective protection against the most common respiratory viruses.
Baker’s lab has spawned eight Seattle-area companies, including Monod Bio and A-Alpha Bio. Baker won the 2021 Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize for his work on protein design.
But to put it bluntly, Baker’s spray is very different from a vaccine. Vaccines stimulate the immune system to recognize and fight an invading pathogen. Baker’s spray, on the other hand, contains proteins that attach to the parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that it uses to enter human cells and disable them.
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The spray has to prove itself in several larger clinical trials before it becomes more widely available – a process that usually takes years. Even if it wins approval, Baker says there’s still no viable business model for this type of therapy. This is another hurdle to overcome.
Baker and his lab are also working on sprays for the flu, the MERS coronavirus, and RSV. Baker told Business Insider that nasal sprays for these viruses are now halfway through animal testing, with no human testing planned at this time.
His goal is to use artificial intelligence to develop a nasal spray full of proteins that can block many different viruses.
Baker said that in the future, researchers could ask an AI machine, which he compared to the DALL-E image generator, to create protein designs that can fight rhinoviruses, the MERS coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 and the flu. Then these proteins could be made and placed in a nasal spray.
Entirely new proteins developed with the help of AI could theoretically be used for very specific problems – for example, to attach to the right part of a virus and thus prevent it from attacking human cells.
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Baker said the designed proteins are more stable than naturally occurring proteins, so they can’t be broken down before arriving in the nose. In addition, the proteins are very effective, so you can put many different types of proteins in the spray without their effectiveness diminishing.
It will probably be a while before we can say goodbye to the winter cold. But the next time you’re struck down by a cold, take comfort in the fact that it might not always be that way.
This article was translated from English by Stefanie Michallek. You can find the original here.
This article was first published on February 6, 2023 and was updated on February 7, 2023.