I would be very interested in your opinion on the nasal spray Xlear that is currently seeking an emergency use authorization with the FDA. Its ingredients are xylitol and grapefruit seed extract.
Haven't looked into it although I think I saw a clinical trial that just labeled grapefruit seed extract. I'll look it up and see what the active compounds are. What'd be beneficial for many of these items is how easy it is to obtain them so if grapefruit seed extract is readily available and it proves beneficial It'd be interesting. However, I think a few of these items, such as even hypertonic saline sprays are still in clinical trials and are still recruiting in some studies and yet many started last year.
The active ingredient in Xlear is xylitol. Apparently, xylitol prevents the adherence of the virus on the nasal mucosa. The company that makes Xlear is in communication with the FDA. I was disappointed to learn that the clinical trial that was supposed to have occurred with Xlear was withdrawn yesterday because no one could be recruited. Here are two links that might be starting points:
So I just read the piece. I find it a bit alarming when journalists source their points from the company. It's not hard to find papers indicating in vitro efficacies so I don't know why they don't add supporting details. Also, Delta constantly gets mentioned as a talking point, and it's quite apparent that many journalists don't really know what they are arguing about when discussing COVID. Unless these sprays target the spike protein most of this talk about variants really just feels moot to me.
It is frustrating that it seems to cheap and easily accessible online, and it's been around for so long and even if they don't work I don't have any evidence of any adverse events so why not even try it? Once again another strange area we're in where even the idea that people try things at home is made to be ineffective, but I wouldn't be surprised if this stems from the bombastic nature of labelling this virus as "novel".
Unfortunately there's plenty of confounding variables. The Stathis et. al. 2020 paper I cited listed a study using carrageenan paired with xylitol and xylitol itself is possibly the active antimicrobial (it's in Listerine). However, there is this paper from 1999:
that looked at grapefruit seed extract in preservatives to see what was the active antimicrobial and stated it may not have come from the extract. I don't have access to the paper so I can't look at it and examine it. There is another clinical trial being investigated but it seems like it won't recruit until December and it doesn't expect to end until 2022 which is hardly helpful over 2 years into the pandemic.
This is quite confusing. The clinical trial that you cited above for Xlear is by the same physician and same hospital that just reported a couple of days ago that there was insufficient recruiting. So it almost looks like they’re starting with a new trial that will start in December 2021. The two trials do indeed have different identity numbers. Apparently, the FTC sent a warning letter to the Xlear company in July 2020 saying that they could not claim that their product was virucidal. I believe that is the reason that the company, being confident that their product works, filed with the FDA and also started doing clinical trials. I agree that it is most likely harmless, and in the interim, if we were to find out two years from now that it works, it would be a shame that people were not using it. I am keeping an open mind and will simply follow studies as they appear regarding xylitol and grapefruit seed extract. In the meantime, if you find anything pertinent regarding Xlear, I would really appreciate it if you would post your findings. :-) And thank you for all that you are doing!
Honestly, it's all kind of a hard mess and it's difficult to try and keep up with everything. I did notice that my local Target was all out of Xlear and other nasal sprays so I guess people were ahead of me in looking this stuff up!
I just find it very disheartening that over the counter items are having difficulty finding people, considering it's not using an experimental drug, but I'll try to look out for information as it comes along.
And thank you! I did come across this paper with 3 case studies that I completely forgot to link. It's very anecdotal but it's an interesting perspective to consider since these people had comorbidities.
I just read the 3 case studies. It is encouraging. I did notice that one of the authors, Gustavo Ferrer, is the same author from the same hospital, Larkin Community Hospital, as in the clinicaltrials dot gov. It should also be noted that he received a grant from Xlear to do the research. That was disclosed in the cureus dot com link. I am hoping that he will be able to pursue the clinical trials so that we can learn more about the effectiveness of Xlear. By the way, Xlear can be purchased online. I will keep in touch if I find out any new information, and I hope you will do the same. :-)
I would be very interested in your opinion on the nasal spray Xlear that is currently seeking an emergency use authorization with the FDA. Its ingredients are xylitol and grapefruit seed extract.
Haven't looked into it although I think I saw a clinical trial that just labeled grapefruit seed extract. I'll look it up and see what the active compounds are. What'd be beneficial for many of these items is how easy it is to obtain them so if grapefruit seed extract is readily available and it proves beneficial It'd be interesting. However, I think a few of these items, such as even hypertonic saline sprays are still in clinical trials and are still recruiting in some studies and yet many started last year.
The active ingredient in Xlear is xylitol. Apparently, xylitol prevents the adherence of the virus on the nasal mucosa. The company that makes Xlear is in communication with the FDA. I was disappointed to learn that the clinical trial that was supposed to have occurred with Xlear was withdrawn yesterday because no one could be recruited. Here are two links that might be starting points:
https://www.newsweek.com/nasal-spray-company-pushes-cdc-fda-accept-its-claims-help-treat-covid-1627712
A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of Xlear vs. Placebo for Acute COVID-19 Infection - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov
So I just read the piece. I find it a bit alarming when journalists source their points from the company. It's not hard to find papers indicating in vitro efficacies so I don't know why they don't add supporting details. Also, Delta constantly gets mentioned as a talking point, and it's quite apparent that many journalists don't really know what they are arguing about when discussing COVID. Unless these sprays target the spike protein most of this talk about variants really just feels moot to me.
It is frustrating that it seems to cheap and easily accessible online, and it's been around for so long and even if they don't work I don't have any evidence of any adverse events so why not even try it? Once again another strange area we're in where even the idea that people try things at home is made to be ineffective, but I wouldn't be surprised if this stems from the bombastic nature of labelling this virus as "novel".
Unfortunately there's plenty of confounding variables. The Stathis et. al. 2020 paper I cited listed a study using carrageenan paired with xylitol and xylitol itself is possibly the active antimicrobial (it's in Listerine). However, there is this paper from 1999:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10399191/
that looked at grapefruit seed extract in preservatives to see what was the active antimicrobial and stated it may not have come from the extract. I don't have access to the paper so I can't look at it and examine it. There is another clinical trial being investigated but it seems like it won't recruit until December and it doesn't expect to end until 2022 which is hardly helpful over 2 years into the pandemic.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04610801?term=grapefruit&cond=COVID-19&draw=2&rank=1
This is quite confusing. The clinical trial that you cited above for Xlear is by the same physician and same hospital that just reported a couple of days ago that there was insufficient recruiting. So it almost looks like they’re starting with a new trial that will start in December 2021. The two trials do indeed have different identity numbers. Apparently, the FTC sent a warning letter to the Xlear company in July 2020 saying that they could not claim that their product was virucidal. I believe that is the reason that the company, being confident that their product works, filed with the FDA and also started doing clinical trials. I agree that it is most likely harmless, and in the interim, if we were to find out two years from now that it works, it would be a shame that people were not using it. I am keeping an open mind and will simply follow studies as they appear regarding xylitol and grapefruit seed extract. In the meantime, if you find anything pertinent regarding Xlear, I would really appreciate it if you would post your findings. :-) And thank you for all that you are doing!
Honestly, it's all kind of a hard mess and it's difficult to try and keep up with everything. I did notice that my local Target was all out of Xlear and other nasal sprays so I guess people were ahead of me in looking this stuff up!
I just find it very disheartening that over the counter items are having difficulty finding people, considering it's not using an experimental drug, but I'll try to look out for information as it comes along.
And thank you! I did come across this paper with 3 case studies that I completely forgot to link. It's very anecdotal but it's an interesting perspective to consider since these people had comorbidities.
https://www.cureus.com/articles/43909-potential-role-of-xylitol-plus-grapefruit-seed-extract-nasal-spray-solution-in-covid-19-case-series
I just read the 3 case studies. It is encouraging. I did notice that one of the authors, Gustavo Ferrer, is the same author from the same hospital, Larkin Community Hospital, as in the clinicaltrials dot gov. It should also be noted that he received a grant from Xlear to do the research. That was disclosed in the cureus dot com link. I am hoping that he will be able to pursue the clinical trials so that we can learn more about the effectiveness of Xlear. By the way, Xlear can be purchased online. I will keep in touch if I find out any new information, and I hope you will do the same. :-)