Ethanol project (covid19 prevention)

"Effect of ethanol vapor inhalation treatment on lethal respiratory viral infection with Influenza A"
Miho Tamai, Seita Taba, Takeshi Mise, Masao Yamashita, Hiroki Ishikawa, Tsumoru Shintake
The Journal of Infectious Diseases (2023). doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad089.

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic affected all of our life. We need to establish effective clinical care for the future. It should be based on a fundamental understanding of molecule biology. We study how the safety chemical of ethanol (EtOH) alters the entry protein by observing under cryo-electron microscopy at the atomic level, how the virus titler may be reduced by EtOH on model cells in vitro, and how much improvement can we see in infected mice. We have been studying the influenza virus because we can handle it in P2-level bio-safety control. SARS-COV2 (COVID-19) and the influenza virus are closely related, i.e., they are both envelop viruses, that cause the same respiratory illness and pandemic.

Summary

(1) We are investigating ethanol vapor inhalation treatment as a new clinical care.
(2) We found ethanol vapor using 50% v/v concentration reduced influenza viruses in the lung and could improve survival in the mouse model, which has been published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
(3) We are planning clinical trials to see how EtOH vapor may apply to humans. It will be conducted in hospitals around Okinawa.
This study was initially started by our theoretical study in 2020 (arXiv:2003.12444), and performed in collaboration with Ishikawa Unit at OIST.

Media coverage of our work can be found here.