March 22, 2023
Nasally Administered Monoclonal Antibody for COVID-19
JAMA. Published online March 22, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.4000
Treating people with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections nasally with foralumab, an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody, decreases the expression of genes involved in the inflammatory T-cell response, according to a randomized trial. Patients with COVID-19 who received foralumab for 10 days also had higher levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is linked with recovery from COVID-19, than those who did not receive the drug, the researchers reported in PNAS.
Moreover, participants with multiple sclerosis and healthy participants experienced identical changes in gene expression as those with COVID-19 after treatment with foralumab. “[N]ot only does our study suggest that this new monoclonal antibody drug is safe and can modulate the immune system without major side effects, but it can also decrease inflammation in multiple realms, so it may be useful for treating other diseases,” study investigator Thais Moreira, PhD, said in a statement.
Article Information
Published Online: March 22, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.4000