95% of flu and herpes infection neutralized by chewing gum!

Looking beyond jabs, sprays or tablets, scientists are thinking outside the box for delivering antiviral medication to prevent the spread of highly transmissible bugs. Their secret weapon? Chewing gum – but not any gum. This one is made from a rather fascinating bean.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Dental Medicine have been working on this novel model of drug delivery, focusing on attacking viruses that like to hide out in our throats and nose. The team looked at neutralizing herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2) and influenza A strains (H1N1 and H3N2) through a clinically loaded chewing gum made with lablab beans (Lablab purpureus).

This bean – also known as the hyacinth, Egyptian kidney, and Indian bean – is a legume that contains a protein that can "trap" and neutralize certain viruses, essentially giving it antiviral properties. This protein, FRIL, is also inherently stable when the legume is converted into a powder and turned into chewing gum.

While not tested on humans, the gum was tested on ART-5 – a mastication simulator – which mimics the conditions of the oral cavity, including potential interactions with compounds that might degrade or inhibit FRIL. But the scientists found that the lablab gum showed effective, sustained release of FRIL – with more than 50% of the protein released in the first 15 minutes – without any signs of toxicity or negative interactions.

And, impressively, 40 mg of a two-gram bean gum tablet could reduce viral loads by more than 95%. This was not a surprise for researchers, though, as it closely mirrors the team's results from an earlier study testing a gum antiviral for COVID-19. That is now in its clinical trial stages.

"Lack of [a] herpes simplex virus (HSV) vaccine, low vaccination rates of Influenza viruses, waning immunity and viral transmission after vaccination underscore the need to reduce viral loads at their transmission sites," the team noted, adding why they're focused on the mouth, not the nose like other avenues of drug delivery research. "Oral virus transmission is several orders of magnitude higher than nasal transmission."

Would people be more receptive to a chewing gum antiviral? Perhaps, given that we're fairly accustomed to putting things in our mouths and up our noses when we're sick. However, for HSV, having a readily available gum could be hugely beneficial to stopping the spread of these strains, which are transmitted asymptomatically and impact 27% of US adults. And for both herpes strains, there's no cure and infection can produce chronic issues. HSV-1, which is mainly spread orally, is the leading cause of infectious blindness in Western countries.

As well as eying off a clinical trial for this novel gum, the researchers are now looking at tackling avian influenza, the H5N1 virus.

“Controlling transmission of viruses continues to be major global challenge," said researcher Henry Daniell. "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.

"These observations augur well for evaluating bean gum in human clinical studies to minimize virus infection/transmission," he added.

The research was published in the journal Molecular Therapy.

Source: University of Pennsylvania/New Atlas