COVID-19: Oxford nasal spray vaccine fails its first clinical test, say researchers 

The hopes for using Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine as a nasal spray have come to a halt after it performed poorly in its first clinical tests.

The result has led the scientists to drop the idea of using the spray in its current form, and its device. They hope to develop a more advanced device such as a nebuliser that will deliver the medicine deep into the lungs.

Keen to develop a nasal Covid vaccine, the researchers feel that the current Covid vaccine works fairly well at preventing illness, but lacks in the field of stopping the spread of the virus.

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The first trial to assess the efficacy involved 30 people along with 12 who received the spray vaccine as a booster but were not previously vaccinated. As per a report in eBioMedicine, the researchers observed no safety issues, but they found that the vaccine produced weak immune responses.

The researchers further trained to measure levels of mucosal and systematic antibodies after receiving the vaccine in the bloodstream and respiratory system.

It was discovered that very few mucosal antibodies were present after the first dose of the vaccine. A handful was later discovered after the second dose of the vaccine but was rare after those seen in virus infection.

The researchers also said that very few levels of antibodies were detected against Covid after one or two doses. However, the antibodies were quite high in number after two jabs of the same vaccine.

To conclude, it was witnessedthat the major drawback of the nasal spray machine is that majority of its droplets either get destroyed or are swallowed in the stomach rather than reaching the immune system or the nose.

The researchers are all set to develop a more concentrated and advanced vaccine. They said that thoughthe test was a failure, the data collected is very helpful for the future.

(With inputs from agencies)

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