COVID-19 News: BREAKING! Japanese Researchers Create Candies From Tannins Of Persimmon As Antivirals Against SARS-CoV-2!
Source: COVID-19 News - Persimmon Candies As Antivirals Against SARS-CoV-2 Nov 06, 2022 2 years, 2 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 24 minutes ago
COVID-19 News: A Japanese study team compromising of researchers from Nara Medical University, National Hospital Organization Nara and Kio University have developed candies from tannins of persimmon as antivirals against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
According to the study team, inactivation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the mouth has the potential to reduce the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) because the virus is readily transmitted by dispersed saliva. Numerous
COVID-19 News outlets have already covered this.
The study team led by Dr Ryutaro Furukawa, an assistant professor at the Department of Immunology and also at the Center for Infectious Diseases, Nara Medical University said that persimmon-derived tannin has strong antioxidant and antimicrobial activity owing to its strong adhesiveness to proteins.
In a previous study, the same research team showed that tannins from persimmon also exhibited antiviral effects against non-variant and alpha variant. The murine study findings also suggested that oral administration of persimmon-derived tannin may help reduce the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission of the virus.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-03149-3
In this current study, the research team first demonstrated the antiviral effects of persimmon-derived tannin against the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro via the plaque assay method.
They then examined the effects of candy containing persimmon-derived tannin.
The study findings using plaque assays showed that saliva samples provided by healthy volunteers while they were eating tannin-containing candy remarkably suppressed the virus titers of the SARS-CoV-2 delta variant.
The study findings also showed that the SARS-CoV-2 viral load in saliva from patients with COVID-19 that was collected immediately after they had eaten the tannin-containing candy was below the level of detection by PCR for SARS-CoV-2!
The study findings suggest that adding persimmon-derived tannin to candy and holding such candy in the mouth is an effective method by which to inactivate the SARS-CoV-2 in saliva, and the application of this approach has potential for inhibiting the transmission of COVID-19.
The study findings were published on a preprint server and are currently being peer reviewed.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.513793v1
The study team also strongly believes that based on the antiviral mechanisms of persimmon tannins, the approach will also work against all the new emerging Omicron sub-lineages as whatever mutations appearing on the Mpro proteins and also on the N proteins will not affect the antiviral effects.
Previous studies have already demonstrated that tannins from various plants and herbs have strong antiviral effects against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
/news/latest-taiwanese-study-shows-that-phytochemicals-such-as-tannins-can-be-used-to-treat-covid-19-including-infections-by-new-omicron-variants">https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/latest-taiwanese-study-shows-that-phytochemicals-such-as-tannins-can-be-used-to-treat-covid-19-including-infections-by-new-omicron-variants
According to the study team, the feature of persimmon-derived tannin is completely different from vaccine and neutralizing antibody therapy, which have become less effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants such as delta and omicron, suggesting that persimmon-derived tannin could be effective even against new SARS-CoV-2 variants that may appear in the future.
Persimmon-derived tannin has been reported to inactivate various viruses by forming large aggregates and inhibiting the viruses from binding to the host cells.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23372851/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34880383/
The study team also demonstrated that human saliva obtained from a volunteer while they were eating tannin-containing hard candy could inactivate SARS-CoV-2 and that eating tannin containing hard candy reduced the viral load in the saliva of patients with COVID-19.
Importantly, it is already known that the oral cavity and saliva play an important role in the transmission of COVID-19 via droplets and aerosols. The salivary gland is also one of the main locations of virus replication, and a high viral load of SARS-CoV-2 is often detected in saliva.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-covid-19-news-study-confirms-that-sars-cov-2-infects-and-replicates-in-the-salivary-glands-and-that-the-mouth-is-also-a-point-of-direct-entry
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33767405/
Hence, reducing the virus load in saliva may suppress the risk of disease transmission. Saliva from healthy persons salivated while they were eating a tannin-containing candy significantly reduced the virus titers of SARS-CoV-2 by approximately 1/1000. Thus, persimmon-derived tannin has antiviral effects even when it is mixed with human saliva.
Furthermore, the study team’s clinical examination revealed that saliva from patients with COVID-19 caused by the delta variant that was collected just after eating tannin-containing candy produced negative results when tested by SARS-CoV-2 PCR, and the virus inhibition effect lasted for at least 60 min. COVID-19 is transmitted mainly by dispersed saliva.
In the study team’s previous research using a hamster model, the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection from infected hamsters to non-infected hamsters was suppressed by administering persimmon-derived tannin into the mouth of infected hamsters.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34880383/
The current study findings support the potential ability of persimmon-derived tannin in the mouth to inhibit COVID-19 transmission in humans. The study team used a hard candy to administer persimmon-derived tannin into the mouth, even though mouthwashes were more often used for similar purposes in previous studies.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33865974/
The study team stresses that hard candy is easily kept in the mouth for several minutes, which can allow the tannin to effectively inactivate the virus in the mouth. Persimmon-derived tannin-containing candy can be used as a simple, safe, inexpensive, and immediately available method of COVID-19 prophylaxis with the potential to be helpful in fighting against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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