Cold and flu medicine likely isn’t your idea of a tasty treat. But what if tackling the flu was as easy as chewing a piece of gum? Scientists have developed an antiviral chewing gum that can safely trap the influenza virus, as well as the virus that causes the herpes simplex virus (HSV). Read on for more insight into the study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine and published in the journal Molecular Therapy.
Preventing Flu Transmission with Antiviral . . . Gum?
Antiviral medications are currently available for both flu and HSV, but they’re far from perfect. The researchers behind this groundbreaking gum cited three factors to underscore the need for a new antiviral product: the lack of an HSV vaccine, low vaccination rates for flu viruses, and “waning immunity and viral transmission after vaccination” against influenza. The team sought to create a new product: one that could reduce viral load before the viruses passed from person to person. Their solution is, perhaps surprisingly, a gum made from a unique bean powder.
Plant-Based Gum Effectively Neutralizes Viral Load
The research team has been fine-tuning the antiviral gum for years, initially developing a plant-based gum meant to trap SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The team built on that research, using a different plant as the base for this flu-specific gum: Lablab purpureus, also known as the lablab bean, which is native to sub-Saharan Africa. Past research indicates that this unique bean naturally carries a protein called Flt3 Receptor Interacting Lectin (FRIL), which can effectively bind to numerous viruses.
The researchers began by incubating samples of influenza, along with HSV-1 and HSV-2, with FRIL. They found that it effectively neutralized the viruses. Still, they wondered: Would enough FRIL be released during gum-chewing to make the process worthwhile? To find out, they used a mechanical mouth to chew the gum. Then, they experimented with the amount of bean powder in the gum tablet, eventually landing on a two-gram tablet containing 40 milligrams of powder. This formula was found to reduce the viral load in incubated samples by over 95 percent. The researchers also found that the gum could remain shelf-stable for at least two years, making it a viable treatment option for individuals living in hard-to-reach regions of the world with limited access to antivirals.
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The team’s research is still in the early stages. However, the scientists wrote that the observations “augur well for evaluating bean gum in human clinical studies to minimize virus infection/transmission.” More in-depth research, hopefully leading to FDA approval, is sure to follow — and, as the avian flu virus continues to evolve, it can’t come soon enough.
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