Can chewing gum fight the flu and herpes? Scientists discover a plant-based gum that could curb the next pandemic! |
Imagine the doctor prescribing you a plant-based chewing gum if you get flu, or some other viral infection! Though getting the flu or any other infection for that matter is no joke, you get the idea, right? Chewing gum as a cure, which means no more gag reflex from the tablets! This almost looks like a scene from a fantasy or a sci-fi movie, but it’s not. Scientists have developed a new antiviral chewing gum that could become a game-changer in the fight against infectious diseases. The gum can neutralize over 95% of influenza and herpes simplex viruses, and perhaps prevent the next pandemic.
Today, we live in a world where infectious diseases pose an escalating threat. Look at the coronavirus pandemic and outbreaks of H1N1, SARS, Ebola, Zika, and H5N1 (bird flu) viruses, all of which have had significant global health and economic impacts. Seasonal flu happens every year and costs over $11.2 billion annually in the US alone. Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), on the other hand, is spread through oral contact, infects more than two-thirds of people worldwide, and is one of the major causes of infectious blindness in Western countries. Researchers at the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and collaborators in Finland have used a clinical-grade antiviral chewing gum to substantially reduce viral loads of two herpes simplex viruses and two influenza A strains in experimental models. Considering the low vaccination rates for influenza viruses and the lack of an HSV vaccine, the new approach could be groundbreaking. The study is published in Molecular Therapy.
The gum developed by Henry Daniell, W.D. Miller Professor at Penn Dental Medicine, harnesses a naturally occurring antiviral protein called FRIL, found in lablab beans (Lablab purpureus). They found that 40 milligrams of a two-gram bean gum tablet was adequate to reduce viral loads by more than 95%, a reduction similar to what they saw in their SARS-CoV-2 study. The researchers made the gum as a clinical-grade drug that meets FDA standards and found it to be safe. “These observations augur well for evaluating bean gum in human clinical studies to minimize virus infection/transmission,” Daniell noted.
Daniell and his colleagues are hoping to tackle bird flu with the lablab bean powder. Bird flu has had a significant impact in North America. In the previous three months, 54 million birds have been affected by H5N1, and several human infections have been reported in the US and Canada.
Previous studies have indicated lablab bean powder neutralized H5N1 and H7N9, two bird flu strains. Daniell’s group is testing the powder in bird feed to curb transmission among poultry, which could possibly prevent the next pandemic.
“Controlling transmission of viruses continues to be a major global challenge. A broad spectrum antiviral protein (FRIL) present in a natural food product (bean powder) to neutralize not only human flu viruses but also avian (bird) flu is a timely innovation to prevent their infection and transmission,” Daniell added.
