While most research efforts towards treating and preventing COVID-19 have centered on vaccine development and therapies for hospitalized patients, Ondine is seeking to offer a therapeutic approach to those patients who test positive but are not yet symptomatic or to those individuals who have had a known exposure to a COVID-19 patient.

It is well established that SARS-CoV-2 infection starts with the virus living and multiplying in the nose and nasopharynx for up to 14 days before moving down to the lung and potentially causing more serious disease.

Currently there is no effective approach for killing the virus while it is still located in the nose and throat. By treating early in the course of the disease it may be possible to avoid further spread or to minimize future symptoms.

Photodisinfection involves a topical microbial stain which is activated by light and kills microbes. Ondine is investigating whether photodisinfection of the nose and throat can halt or reduce the course of COVID-19 disease before infection of the lungs starts to occur. Photodisinfection is a simple procedure that takes just a few minutes and has no known serious side effects.

Ondine has several research programs underway, each targeting a different aspect of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis:

• Program 1:  To determine the effects of photodisinfection on the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its infectivity using human clinical samples.
• Program 2:  To determine the impact of photodisinfection treatment on the incidence of symptomatic or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections in healthcare professionals exposed to the virus. In the absence of specific antiviral treatment, particular attention must be paid to prevention. Personal protective equipment can be insufficient to effectively guard against SARS-CoV-2, especially in exposed healthcare professionals.
• Program 3:  To understand the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 viral population in human hosts during the course of the disease, with relation to viral infectivity and the establishment of humoral (antibody-based) immune responses. This data will guide development of optimal photodisinfection treatment protocols  designed to maximally impact the disease process. Ondine has established relationships with several universities to further understand exactly how photodisinfection impacts viral infectivity proteins as well as the RNA genome itself.