Russia registered the Sputnik V nasal vaccine, the first of its kind against COVID-19

The Russian Ministry of Health registered the nasal version of the COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Institute of that country. The injectable immunizer was the first to be used in Argentina and is applied in more than 70 countries, but it has not yet received emergency authorization from the World Health Organization (WHO) or the main control agencies, such as those of the United States (FDA) and the European Union (EMA).

“The Russian Ministry of Health records the nasal version of Sputnik V, the world's first nasal vaccine against COVID-19,” the developer of the Russian immunizer reported this Friday through the official Twitter account.

In 2020, the scientific journal Lancet published a study conducted on more than 20,000 people that indicated that Sputnik V injection had no harmful effects and was 91% effective against infection of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2. But so far the developers have not managed to get WHO to give it its go-ahead. The international organization announced on March 16 that it postponed its evaluation of the Russian coronavirus vaccine due to that country's invasion of Ukraine.

Last December, the Gamaleya Institute had reported that it would release its nasal delivery vaccine against COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2022. “The Sputnik nasal vaccine will be delivered to the market in the first quarter of 2022,” the center then reported on its official Twitter account.

Several scientific centers around the world have been studying how effective the nasal application of a coronavirus vaccine is. During this time, it was found that SARS-CoV-2 replication targets nasal hair cells in the early stages of COVID-19 infection. Epidemiological studies focusing on the mechanisms of viral infection can provide information on the development of effective preventive treatments. Thus, the establishment of nasal mucosal immunity against SARS-CoV-2 through a nasal vaccine could be the most effective way to combat COVID-19 infection. Understanding how viral infection occurs can provide important clues for researchers to develop strategies to prevent viral transmission and develop effective therapeutics and vaccines.

Thus, for example, led by director KOH Gou Young, scientists from the Vascular Research Center of the South Korean Institute of Basic Sciences recently discovered the processes involved in the earliest stages of COVID-19 infection. This study was able to determine that multiciliated cells of the nasal epithelium are the first cells targeted by early COVID-19 infection. This means that targeting these cells through specific treatments, such as nasal sprays, can be an ideal strategy to stop COVID-19 infection in the early stages.

According to the Gamaleya Center, the nasal vaccine, the development of which Russia reported in the middle of last year, “will be especially effective against the highly contagious Omicron variant, since it will not only protect against infection, but will prevent transmission.”

Sputnik V injection, Russia's first registered vaccine against COVID-19, and the Sputnik Light single-dose, proved to be highly effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to that scientific center and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (FIDR). “Vaccination with Sputnik V and revaccination within six months with Sputnik Light today offer good protection against the Ómicron variant,” said Gamaleya Center Director Alexandr Ginzburg at a press conference late last year.

Also in March 2021, Argentine scientists presented a new project for a nasal vaccine against protein-based SARS-CoV-2 (RBD), which is a portion of the protein S of the viruses and nanoparticles, which generate antibodies. Thanks to the work carried out three years ago by two research teams from the Institute for Immunological and Physiopathological Studies (IIFP, CONICET-UNLP) and the Institute for Theoretical and Applied Physicochemical Research (INIFTA, CONICET-UNLP), was born ARGENVAC 221, the potential and possible name with which the inoculant thought and developed by local science, particularly by a group of scientists, would be named of La Plata, composed of chemists, biochemists and immunologists among others. The development is based on the use of fragments of protein S, which is found in the coat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, and is the weapon that this uses to invade and infect the target cells, which are those of the nasal and, mainly, pulmonary epithelium, where in contact with different types of receptors is divides and multiplies to invade other cells.

Also in France, a group of experts from the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment of France (INRAE), which worked together with their peers at the University of Tours, filed in January the patent for a new type of vaccine candidate against coronavirus, a development that could have a wider range of use than those currently on the market.

The nebulized vaccine project, a French achievement after so many delays, could find all its usefulness given its original characteristics. It is a protein-based vaccine, but not aimed solely at the Spike protein, which is subject to multiple mutations. This nasal injection adds other proteins that are much more stable, which gives it qualities of a universal vaccine, that is, not sensitive to mutations.

Also in Israel, scientists showed that the use of a nasal spray reduced the rates of coronavirus infection at a mass gathering during Rosh Hashana in the highly endemic community of the city of Bnei Brak, of 210,000 inhabitants in Israel, according to a new preliminary research published on Researchsquare in February 2021.

In mid-September, before the Jewish New Year (a two-day intensive prayer meeting), PCR positivity rates were 17.6% and rose to 28.1% two weeks later. In the midst of these celebrations, 83 members of an ultra-Orthodox synagogue in Bnei Brak used the “Traffix” nasal spray during the Rosh Hashana services, and after two weeks, only 2.4% of the product's users were infected with the coronavirus, compared to 10% of non-users who were infected with the coronavirus.

According to scientists who tested it, the drug is an innovative nasal powder inhaler that creates a protective gel layer on the nasal mucosa and effectively blocks viruses from infecting nasal cells. It is approved for use in Europe and Israel. In vitro studies showed that the drug blocks viruses (including SARS-CoV-2) from infecting human cells (< 99%).

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