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Atossa Therapeutics Announces Successful In Vitro Testing of Nasal Spray Formulation: AT-301 Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity of VERO Cells in Laboratory Culture
Results Support Development of Proprietary AT-301 Nasal Spray for COVID-19 Patients SEATTLE, July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atossa Therapeutics, Inc.
About this update from Atossa Therapeutics, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Results Support Development of Proprietary AT-301 Nasal Spray for COVID-19 Patients\nSEATTLE, July 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATOS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company seeking to discover and develop innovative medicines in areas of significant unmet medical need with a current focus on breast cancer and COVID-19, today announced successful results from in vitro testing of AT-301, Atossa’s proprietary COVID-19 nasal spray drug candidate. The preliminary study results show that AT-301 inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infectivity of VERO cells in a laboratory culture, which is the standard disease model used for initial screening of COVID-19 drug candidates. \n AT-301 is being developed with a nasal spray delivery mechanism because many COVID-19 patients are infected via the nasal passage. Collectively, the components of AT-301 are believed to help maintain a protective mucosal like layer within the nasal cavity with both anti-viral properties and protective mucosal like barrier that may lead to lower infectivity and reduced symptoms in COVID-19 patients due to their interference with the spike protein of the virus in the nasal cavity and upper respiratory tract. Atossa’s nasal spray formulation AT-301 is being designed to contain ingredients that can potentially block SARS-CoV-2 viral entry gene proteins in nasal epithelial cells by interfering with spike protein activation by host proteases, by masking receptor binding domains (RBD) via electrostatic mechanisms, and by providing a generalized mucoadhesive epithelial barrier. “The AT-301 formulation was designed to work like a mucosal vaccine, blocking entry of the virus into the cells to begin with and thus, hopefully, preventing a COVID-19 infection,” said Dr. Steven Quay, Atossa’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “With the finding that a particular cell found in the nasal cavity -- the goblet cell -- has among the highest expressions of viral entry genes1, the concept of targeting the nasal cavity to block early SARS-CoV-2 infection made a lot of sense. And having invented two FDA-approved nasal spray products before founding Atossa, I am gratified to be able to bring this prior clinical and regulatory experience to bear on this devastating pandemic. We look forward to commencing a Phase 1 clinical study this quarter and reporting progress...