Abstract

ABSTARCTThe severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for the ongoing pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has triggered worldwide concerted efforts in an attempt to identify effective therapies. In the present study, we have identified two candidate agents with potential activity against SARS-CoV-2 which can be administered intranasally, namely, xylitol and grape seed fruit extract (GSE). A commercially available nasal spray (Xlear) combining xylitol and GSE has been available for years, but the antiviral effects of this solution have not been documented. This in vitro study examined the virucidal effect of Xlear against SARS-CoV-2. To this end, two independent sets of experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that Xlear is an effective (Experiment I) and replicable (Experiment II) means to deactivate SARS-CoV-2. When tested against SARS-CoV-2, the test compound GSE 0.2% was the only compound effective at reducing >3 log10 CCID50 infectious virus from, 3.67 log10 CCID50/0.1 mL to an undetectable amount of infectious virus. The present results validated by two independent sets of experiments, performed by different labs, on different viral strains, provide early evidence to encourage further pilot and clinical studies aimed at investigating the use of Xlear as a potential treatment for COVID-19