Trial to Test Interferon Nasal Drops for COVID-19 Prevention in Medical Staff

In the early stages of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCOV) pandemic, medical staff faced an extremely high risk of infection due to direct exposure to patients. Effective prophylactic (preventive) treatments were urgently needed to protect these frontline workers and maintain healthcare capacity. This study addresses the critical knowledge gap regarding the efficacy of recombinant human interferon alpha nasal drops, alone or in combination with thymosin alpha 1, as a preventive measure against 2019-nCOV infection in high-risk medical personnel.

As this is a planned clinical trial (NCT04320238), specific results are not yet available. However, the study aims to determine if the prophylactic use of recombinant human interferon alpha-1b significantly reduces the incidence of 2019-nCOV infection in medical staff. The investigators hypothesize that interferon alpha, an antiviral cytokine, will bolster the innate immune response in the nasal mucosa, the primary entry point for the virus. The primary objective is to quantitatively compare the incidence rate of 2019-nCOV infection between the intervention groups and control groups (implied by the study design, though not explicitly stated as a separate control arm in the abstract, the comparison is inherent to assessing a preventive effect). Furthermore, the trial intends to evaluate whether the addition of thymosin alpha 1, an immune-modulating peptide, provides an enhanced protective effect in the high-risk group over the 28-day intervention period. The study will also monitor for any adverse events associated with the prophylactic regimens.