An experimental chewing gum, which contains a protein that largely “traps” coronavirus particles, can reduce the amount (load) of virus in saliva and thus help limit its transmission, especially when a carrier of the virus speaks or cough, according to American scientists.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Professor Henry Daniel, who published the paper in the medical journal Molecular Therapy, according to Reuters, conducted laboratory experiments with human samples and samples of saline samples. the coronavirus.
The ACE2 protein is present on the cell surface and the virus uses it as a “gateway” to enter them to infect them. Viral particles have been found to attach to the “receptors” (mimics of real ones in human cells) of the ACE2 protein in chewing gum. Thus, the viral load in the samples decreased by more than 95%.
The researchers concluded that “chewing gum with the proteins that trap the virus, offers a general inexpensive strategy to protect patients from most oral viral infections by reducing the viral load or minimizing its transmission to others.”
