Scientists Made Chewing Gum That Combats Herpes and the Flu

Here’s something to chew on: antiviral gum. Scientists have developed chewing gum that can safely trap the influenza virus and the viruses that cause herpes, at least in the lab.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine developed the gum, made from bean powder. In various experiments, a protein found in the gum substantially neutered two flu strains and the herpes simplex viruses 1 and 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2). The gum could prove to be a potent and easy-to-use tool for preventing the spread of these infections, the researchers say.

The Penn researchers have been working on antiviral gum for some time now. Several years ago, they developed gum from plant-based material that could effectively trap SARS-CoV-2—the cause of covid-19—in people’s saliva. Their latest creation relies on a similar approach but uses a different plant that’s native to sub-Saharan Africa and commonly eaten in tropical areas: Lablab purpureus, also known as the lablab bean. Past research has shown that the lablab bean naturally carries a protein that can bind to a wide variety of viruses. This protein is called Flt3 Receptor Interacting Lectin, or FRIL for short.

The researchers incubated samples of influenza, along with HSV-1 and HSV-2, with FRIL, finding that it could neutralize the viruses with sufficiently high doses. They also used a mechanical mouth to chew the gum and measure if enough FRIL would be released during chewing to reach these levels. They found that a two-gram gum tablet containing 40 milligrams of bean powder was sufficient to reduce the viral load of these viruses by over 95%.

“These observations augur well for evaluating bean gum in human clinical studies to minimize virus infection/transmission,” the scientists wrote in their paper detailing the work, published in the journal Molecular Theory.

The team’s research is still in the early stages, but they created their gum according to FDA specifications for drug products—an important step for anything intended to prevent infections. They also found that the gum could remain stable and safe to chew for at least two years.

Antiviral medications are currently available for both flu and herpes, along with a seasonal flu vaccine, but all have their limitations. Today’s flu vaccines can prevent severe infections, for instance, but aren’t very reliable at preventing transmission to others once someone is infected. Antiviral medications for herpes can lower the risk of transmission to others, but many people often don’t even know they have herpes, due to a lack of symptoms. And herpes can spread through saliva even without causing illness (this can include spreading to someone’s genitals via oral sex). There are also currently no vaccines for either type of herpes virus.

So the researchers are hopeful that chewing gum can be a novel and effective delivery system for preventing the transmission of viruses like flu and HSV-1/2 that spread through saliva. They’re also planning to test whether bird feed laced with FRIL can prevent bird flu from spreading among poultry.

“Controlling transmission of viruses continues to be a major global challenge. A broad spectrum antiviral protein (FRIL) present in a natural food product (bean powder) to neutralize not only human flu viruses but also avian (bird) flu is a timely innovation to prevent their infection and transmission,” said lead researcher Henry Daniell in a statement from the university.

Personally speaking, I wouldn’t mind grabbing a stick of gum during the winter to keep my loved ones safe from getting my flu infection—though hopefully, it wouldn’t have to taste like bean.