On December 27, the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that: Recently, the institute proposed a new strategy for "intranasal masks" and innovative dosage forms, which were verified by mouse and human nasal cavity digital models and human respiratory tract simulation models.It was found that a protective layer can be formed on the nasal cavity wall to intercept virus aerosols and inactivate the virus.
According to reports, the "intranasal mask" was created by the team of researcher Ma Guanghui and researcher Wei Wei of the Institute's State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering.
The new "mask" is composed of a thermosensitive hydrogel (GEL) carrying a positive charge and micron-sized cellular vesicles (MV) with high expression of viral receptors on the surface to form a protective layer (MV@GEL).
After the "intranasal mask" liquid is sprayed into the nasal cavity, when the virus aerosol is inhaled into the nasal cavity, the positively charged GEL in the protective layer can intercept it.It also absorbs negatively charged virus aerosol particles and blocks their spread to the downstream trachea and lungs.
The MVs chimeric in the gel can further rely on the highly expressed receptors on the surface to trap the virus into the interior of the vesicles and inactivate them, thus protecting the nasal epithelial cells from being infected by the virus.
However, the above results are still in the preclinical research stage, and the actual clinical efficacy needs to be further verified.