A new research article by Leyden Labs and partners at Imperial College has been published in Infectious Diseases & Therapy. The article is entitled "Exploring the Role of Antiviral Nasal Sprays in the Control of Emerging Respiratory Infections in the Community." Read it here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled a gap in our measures for pandemic preparedness: we need fast-acting protection against infection from known and new viruses. Intranasal sprays with antivirals that provide immediate, broad protection against a family of viruses could potentially fill this gap.

Our team collaborated with leading epidemiologists - including Dr. Chris Hadjichrysanthou, Prof. Frank de Wolf and Prof. Sir Roy Anderson - to develop a mathematical model studying the impact of antibody nasal sprays on the control of new viruses like SARS-CoV-2.

The team modelled thousands of scenarios of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and effects of intranasal sprays with different modes of action. The findings show that antiviral intranasal sprays could delay the spread of the infection and reduce the proportion of hospitalizations significantly.

Speedy roll-out of the intervention, in the first two months of the pandemic, would be important. The proportion of hospitalizations averted would further depend on the treatment efficacy, the duration of use, and the proportion of treated people in the population.