Chewing to curb COVID

Penn Medicine will conduct a new clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a chewing gum designed by School of Dental Medicine researchers to trap SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva. Chewing gum tablets containing plant material laced with the ACE2 protein are being evaluated in a clinical trial to see if they are safe and effective in trapping SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva. (Image: Kevin Monko/Penn Dental Medicine) A recently launched clinical trial at Penn Medicine will evaluate a new chewing gum designed by School of Dental Medicine researchers to trap SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva, potentially blocking transmission of COVID-19 from one person to another. The trial will recruit participants from a pool of Penn Medicine employees whose responses to the PennOpen Pass screening system indicate that they may be battling a COVID-19 infection. Those who enroll in the clinical trial will be given a packet of a dozen experimental tablets of gum. Each morning, they ’ll pop one in their mouth—and start to chew. The cinnamon-flavored gum is designed to do far more than freshen breath. Thanks to innovations emerging from the lab of School of Dental Medicine researcher Henry Daniell, the experimental gum contains plant-derived material genetically engineered to contain ACE2, a protein found naturally in human blood and saliva. The ACE2 receptor is found on human cells and is bound by SARS-CoV-2 virus during infection. In experimental models, chewing the gum was found to release the embed...
Source: Dental Technology Blog - Category: Dentistry Source Type: news