Scientists in Pennsylvania have created a kind of antiviral chewing gum made from the Australian pea plant.

Containing a strong antiviral protein, the researches have used it to reduce the viral load in patients’ mouths for both influenza and herpes simplex viruses.

Seasonal influenza epidemics cause a substantial global disease burden and economic losses exceeding $11.2 billion each year in the United States alone, while the HSV-1 virus, infecting two-thirds of the global population, is not only socially stigmatizing, but the leading cause of infectious blindness in Western countries.

Henry Daniell at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine, has replicated work he undertook during the pandemic to create a chewing gum with the potential to neutralize viruses, reasoning that the viruses are spread more significantly from the oral rather than the nasal cavity.

Made from Lablab purpureus, which naturally contain an antiviral trap protein called FRIL, the gum was shown in a study to neutralize two herpes simplex viruses (HSV-1 and HSV-2) and two influenza A strains (H1N1 and H3N2).

In their study published in Molecular Therapy, Daniell and collaborators in Finland, demonstrated that 40 milligrams of a two-gram bean gum tablet was adequate to reduce viral loads by more than 95%.

“These observations augur well for evaluating bean gum in human clinical studies to minimize virus infection/transmission,” Daniell said, according to Penn News.

Daniell and his colleagues are now looking to use lablab bean powder to tackle bird flu, which is currently having a significant impact in North America.

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Previously, bean powder was shown by others to effectively neutralize H5N1 and H7N9—two strains of influenza A known to cause bird flu in humans as well as in birds. Daniell and colleagues are currently looking to test its use in bird feed to help control bird flu in birds.

Additionally, the researchers prepared the gum as a clinical-grade drug to comply with the FDA specifications for drug products and found the gum to be safe.

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“Controlling transmission of viruses continues to be major global challenge. A broad spectrum antiviral protein (FRIL) present in a natural food product (bean powder) to neutralize not only human flu viruses but also avian (bird) flu is a timely innovation to prevent their infection and transmission,” says Daniell.

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