Coronavirus test illustration - Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times / Shutterstock / SIPA

An anti-Covid-19 treatment in the form of a nasal spray or a tablet to melt under the tongue would be likely to see the light of day by the end of 2020. It was developed by French researchers from the CNRS, reports Le Parisien  this Friday.

Regardless of its mode of administration, this protein would render the coronavirus inactive by removing it from the lung cells. However, it has only been tested on cells in the laboratory for the moment. The study on the subject has not yet been published in a scientific journal. A patent on the device was filed last May.

# COVID19 A nasal spray to deceive the #coronavirus: we explain the latest CNRS discovery >> https://t.co/yg9Bcls4Qi pic.twitter.com/02TpNggtw3

- Le Parisien Infog (@LeParisienInfog) August 30, 2020

A need for funding

It took only three months for the French scientists to develop the treatment, thanks to "a work of 18 hours per day", explains the principal author of the research. The researchers say they have already established the protein's safety for the immune system and human cells. They are now looking for funding to be able to "offer a formulated product," says Philippe Karoyan, who led the project.

The treatment actually acts as a decoy made from a peptide and mimicking the ACE2 receptor, the gateway for the coronavirus to cells. The virus finds itself unable to do any harm because it is blocked in this element created from scratch by scientists thanks to two algorithms. These programs imagined 160 possible types of receptors and then determined that three of them were successful in fooling the virus.

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  • Health
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  • Cnrs
  • Coronavirus