Health Tokyo Univ. researchers develop nasal COVID vaccine

When a vaccine with the artificial virus was administered nasally to mice, immunity was achieved on the mucous membranes of their nasal cavity and lungs. The new type reportedly achieves particularly wide immunity coverage in the lungs when compared to mRNA vaccines. Next, when a group of eight hamsters treated with the nasal vaccine was infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus and omicron's XBB subvariant, neither of these virus variants propagated in the lungs. The nasal cavities of around half of the hamsters were reportedly free of viral growth on the third day after infection, and even in the other half, the amount of growth was significantly suppressed, disappearing by the sixth day. Kawaoka commented, "The nasal vaccine is effective for respiratory tract infections and is thought to be effective in preventing the spread of infection. Unlike mRNA vaccines, it has the advantage of providing immunity similar to that acquired through actual viral infection."

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