11 May 2022 - - Canada-based pharmaceutical company SaNOtize Research and Development has posted results from a retrospective clinical study assessing the efficacy of nitric oxide releasing nasal spray (NONS) in preventing COVID-19 infection after high-risk exposure, the company said.

Nitric oxide is a naturally occurring molecule known to have antimicrobial properties, including a direct effect on SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The new study, conducted at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, Thailand, found participants who took NONS after COVID-19 exposure were 75% less likely to become infected when compared to the control group, yielding a statistically significant reduction in infection rate.

The study was carried out during an emergency effort by the University to contain an Omicron outbreak in February, 2022. Medical personnel, students, and professors (1,039 individuals, aged 18-60) were quarantined in dormitories after possible COVID-19 exposure.

Individuals were included in the current analysis if they had confirmed high-risk exposure to a COVID-19 infected roommate (defined as being within one to two meters of the infected individual for at least five minutes without a mask). NONS was offered to staff and students who reported exposure.

After exclusion for being low-risk or testing positive via antigen test kit within 24 hours, 625 student participants were included in the analysis. Of these, 203 participants used NONS at least four times per day and 422 volunteers did not use NONS.

All volunteers were tested via ATK on the fifth, seventh, and tenth day of quarantine, and positive tests were confirmed by PCR.

Among the 203 participants who used NONS, 13 tested positive (6.4% infection rate). Of the 422 in the control group, 108 participants tested positive (25.6% infection rate), a statistically significant difference from the treatment group (P