In a nutshell, we showed that over-the-counter cheap generic antibiotic neomycin can be repurposed in nasal formulation to prevent & treat infection, block transmission, and reduce disease burden against a wide array of viruses. Since this is a host-directed strategy and virus-agnostic, it holds promise as a prophylactic strategy against any viral threat.

The advice in the screencapped thread was to apply a little with a q-tip to the inside of the nostrils.

There is no info on any dangers of doing this very often, but if you can’t avoid a high-risk environment it’s worth trying.

Here’s a thread about the study. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1782535781338222960.html

here’s the study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5918160/

  • sappho [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    2 months ago

    A concern I have about this is the long term effect on the nasal microbiome. In the same way that using antibiotics orally can fuck up your gut microbiome and lead to an increased risk of other health problems, could fucking up the nasal microbiome lead to poorer viral resistance in the long term, or an increased chance of developing allergy/histamine/MCAS issues (which are already triggered by COVID infections)?

    • PbSO4 [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      12·
      2 months ago

      The authors share your concerns

      Our results demonstrate a surprising and broad antiviral effect of the aminoglycoside family of antibiotics, when applied to mucosal surfaces. However, we do not advocate for use of these compounds as antivirals, as aminoglycoside application is expected to cause local dysbiosis of commensal bacterial community.

    • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.socialEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      Totally get the concern here, but I don’t think we have any idea of how the nasal microbiom impacts overall health. We’re really just now realizing how important the gut microbiome is, I doubt they’ve looked much at the nose.