Debulking different Corona (SARS-CoV-2 delta, omicron, OC43) and Influenza (H1N1, H3N2) virus strains by plant viral trap proteins in chewing gums to decrease infection and transmission

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School of Dental Medicine::Departmental Papers (Dental)
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Dentistry
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SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Topical drug delivery; Chewing gum; Omicron; Delta strains; Influenza virus; Plant cells; Virus trap proteins; Oral viruses; Debulking
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2023
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Henry Daniell; Smruti K. Nair; Hancheng Guan; Yuwei Guo; Rachel J. Kulchar; Marcelo D.T. Torres; Md. Shahed-Al-Mahmud; Geetanjali Wakade; Yo-Min Liu; Andrew D. Marques; Jevon Graham-Wooten; Wan Zhou; Ping Wang; Sudheer K. Molugu; William R. de Araujo; Cesar de la Fuente-Nunez; Che Ma; William R. Short; Pablo Tebas; Kenneth B. Margulies; Frederic D. Bushman; Francis K. Mante; Robert P. Ricciardi; Ronald G. Collman; Mark S. Wolff
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Abstract

Because oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is 3–5 orders of magnitude higher than nasal transmission, we investigated debulking of oral viruses using viral trap proteins (CTB-ACE2, FRIL) expressed in plant cells, delivered through the chewing gum. In omicron nasopharyngeal (NP) samples, the microbubble count (based on N-antigen) was significantly reduced by 20 μg of FRIL (p < 0.0001) and 0.925 μg of CTB-ACE2 (p = 0.0001). Among 20 delta or omicron NP samples, 17 had virus load reduced below the detection level of spike protein in the RAPID assay, after incubation with the CTB-ACE2 gum powder. A dose-dependent 50% plaque reduction with 50–100 ng FRIL or 600–800 μg FRIL gum against Influenza strains H1N1, H3N2, and Coronavirus HCoV-OC43 was observed with both purified FRIL, lablab bean powder or gum. In electron micrographs, large/densely packed clumps of overlapping influenza particles and FRIL protein were observed. Chewing simulator studies revealed that CTB-ACE2 release was time/dose-dependent and release was linear up to 20 min chewing. Phase I/II placebo-controlled, double-blinded clinical trial (IND 154897) is in progress to evaluate viral load in saliva before or after chewing CTB-ACE2/placebo gum. Collectively, this study advances the concept of chewing gum to deliver proteins to debulk oral viruses and decrease infection/transmission.

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2022-09-01
Journal title
Biomaterials
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Elsevier Ltd
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