Dikhyaa Mohanty 
COVID-19 vaccine candidate which can be administered through the nose showed a reduction in both the impact of the disease and transmission of the virus in pre-clinical animal trials.
As per the researchers at Lancaster University in the UK immunised hamsters with two doses of the intranasal vaccine. They found the animals showed complete protection from a lung infection, inflammation and lesions following exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
According to the reports, the two doses of the vaccine were found to significantly reduce the virus “shedding” from the nose and lungs of the hamsters — suggesting the preventive has the potential to control infection at the site of inoculation. This should prevent both clinical disease and virus transmission, to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Muhammad Munir, who led the study at Lancaster University said “Our studies demonstrate that induction of a local immune response at the point of entry of SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to not only limit clinical disease but also — and perhaps even more importantly — virus transmission from infected to uninfected individuals. After we administered the vaccine into the noses of hamsters and then infected them with SARS-CoV-2, we found almost no virus replication in the lungs and nasal wash of these animals. In contrast, animals given normal NDV showed easily detectable SARS-CoV-2 virus replication in their lungs and nasal washes.”
Image Source – Google
