Lockdown lab ingenuity leads to hay fever spray
In the BBC article “Lockdown lab ingenuity leads to hay fever spray”, Scientists in Birmingham say they are close to launching a new hay fever spray treatment that grew out of work on Covid.
During lockdown, a group of material scientists and chemists at the University of Birmingham created a nasal spray to block the virus from entering our bodies though the membranes inside our noses.
The idea developed into a successful commercial product, which customer feedback reported also blocked pollen and pollution.
Now the team is gathering scientific data to prove an adjusted formulation works as a hay fever treatment.
Running a laboratory in lockdown was not easy, and it was hard to buy or get hold of the equipment needed for experiments, Dr Richard Moakes explained.
"So we did what we do best, and invented something," he added, as he brought out a cardboard box from their pandemic experiments.
"We made a cut out in the box which allowed us to standardise the height we were spraying onto. Very low tech but does the job."
This allowed the researchers to accurately compare all the different new formulas they were trying out.
They were trying to come up with a formula for the spray itself that would give you nice wide coverage inside the nose, form a barrier thick enough to stop coronavirus but also not be deeply unpleasant to use.
They found some clever polymers that, when put under force, broke into shorter lengths.
This made them perfect for spraying through a nozzle and then, once inside the nose, the polymers would start to become entangled and form an excellent physical barrier to stop the virus.
Of course, that was the theory. The issue was how to test their new spray and see if it really worked.
'Blocks viral infection'
Because in lockdown finding other researchers to help was very difficult, Prof Liam Grover took to social media.
He posted: "We've developed a ... nasal spray that we think could reduce viral uptake by human cells. Does anyone have access to a lab (to test this)?"
Shortly after, a scientist working only a few hundred metres away on the campus responded.
Dr Zania Stamataki had all the equipment and expertise to test the new spray.
And one night, she sent a text back to the professor. "Liam," she said. "You might want to spray this formulation up your nose, because it really seems to block viral infection."
The new spray will be a drug-free option for people suffering with hay fever
Dr Moakes and Prof Grover watched their lockdown idea grow into a successful commercial product, NoriZite, which launched in Singapore in 2022 and is now sold in ten countries.
Prof Grover said the team was now starting to create a real evidence base to scientifically show the product was beneficial for hay fever sufferers.
For traditional hay fever treatments the focus is on the drugs in the formulation, but delivery through the spray itself seems a bit of an afterthought.
So sprays are so strong they shoot the formula right up to the ceiling, which is not terribly nice inside your nose.
But this new spray is all about covering the inside of the nose with a thin barrier and, thanks to this radical new formula, the spray is much more diffuse and a lot less like a mini-firehose.
"The spray that we use forms a long-lasting layer and should inhibit that pollen from making contact with the mucosal surface and therefore reduce some of those unpleasant symptoms that you get with hay fever," Prof Grover said.
Since it is a product involving a physical barrier, rather than active drugs in the treatment, the testing and evidence gathering takes much less time.
Working with Birmingham Biotech Ltd, the scientists' aim is to get the new hay fever treatment onto British shelves by the end of this year.
A pandemic idea born of lockdown-lab ingenuity aiming to tackle almost anything that really gets up your nose.