Can a spe­cial chew­ing gum slick away Covid-19 from sali­va? Penn re­searchers start clin­i­cal tri­al to find out

Re­searchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia have be­gun a small clin­i­cal tri­al to test whether a cin­na­mon-fla­vored gum (no, not Wrigley’s Big Red) could re­duce the amount of Covid-19 in sali­va — a po­ten­tial way to cut trans­mis­sion of the virus.

The gum, de­signed by Penn School of Den­tal Med­i­cine’s Hen­ry Daniell, is made from let­tuce plant cells that were al­tered to ex­press ACE2 — the re­cep­tor that the Covid-19 virus binds to in the body — which en­ables the gum to trap Covid-19 vi­ral par­ti­cles.

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