Fig. 4

Pre-treatment with 1% P80 lozenges diluted in bidestilled water (A.d.) or non-neutralizing saliva protects HAE from tissue disruption and infection by Omicron BA.5 and Influenza B. (a, b) Pseudostratified epithelia pretreated or not with 1% P80 diluted in A.d. or saliva prior infection with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.5 or Influenza B were analyzed for tissue destruction measuring TEER (a) and virus copy number by quantitative RT-PCR (b). Experiments were performed at least thrice in duplicates and statistical significance calculated using GraphPad Prism software and one-way ANOVA. (c, d) Viral RNA from apical (c) and basolateral (d) were analyzed from subnatants of UI, Influenza B, Influenza B + 1% P80/A.d. and Influenza B + 1% P80/Saliva cultures of pseudostratified epithelia on 3 dpi. The experiment was repeated at least 3 times and statistically significant differences were determined by one-way ANOVA with Tukey´s multiple comparisons test. All values are means ± SD