Allergy sufferers bore witness to a historic moment on March 15, 2024, when the FDA approved the nasal spray fluticasone propionate (XHANCE) for the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyps in adult patients. It is the first and only drug to have received this indication in the agency’s history. Approval was based on data from the phase 3 ReOpen program and came just over a year after Optinose announced that it was submitting its new drug to the FDA.

A large study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine looked at the benefit of accessible, simple interventions used preventatively or early in respiratory illness in primary care settings. When used at the first sign of respiratory infection, two nasal sprays were shown to have a clinically significant effect on the duration of illness compared to usual care. They also reduced the number of workdays lost and, when used with two other interventions, the use of antibiotics.

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch recently made a significant discovery in the fight against neurodegenerative illnesses like Alzheimer’s and dementia. The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, presented an innovative nasal spray treatment that yielded promising results in clearing harmful tau protein aggregates and improving cognitive function in models of aged mice with neurodegenerative diseases. Current tau immunotherapies have struggled to be effective due to their limited ability to penetrate the intracellular compartments where these tau aggregates reside and which, when damaged, accelerate Alzheimer’s disease.