A chewing gum engineered from lablab beans has reduced levels of the human papilloma virus (HPV) in saliva samples by 93% in a study examining antiviral chewing gum HNSCC treatments, with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania now preparing to move the work into clinical trials on both sides of the Atlantic.
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a cancer that develops in the lining of the mouth and throat. It can be aggressive, and survival rates remain poor when the disease is caught at an advanced stage. Henry Daniell, vice-chair of the Department of Basic and Translational Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, has been working on plant-derived therapies as a lower-cost alternative to conventional drug development. His starting point is a blunt one: most new cancer drugs, he says, fail to significantly improve quality-of-life or five-year survival rates.
What the Bean Gum Does to Cancer-Linked Microbes
The gum is made from lablab beans, also called hyacinth beans, which contain a naturally antiviral protein called FRIL. Daniell and colleagues took oral swab samples from HNSCC patients and tested bean gum extracts against three microbes known to be associated with the cancer: HPV, and two bacterial species, Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn).
The results against HPV were clear. Bean gum extracts reduced HPV levels by 93% in saliva samples and by 80% in oral rinse samples. ‘The global increase in oropharyngeal cancer is linked to HPV infection,’ Daniell told Penn News, ‘and Pg and Fn infections worsen survival rates of untreated recurrent or metastatic oral cancer, even after surgery and risk-adjusted adjuvant, or supplemental, therapies.’
Tackling the two bacterial species required a further step. When the team bioengineered the bean gum to also carry protegrin, an antimicrobial peptide, a single dose reduced levels of Pg and Fn to almost zero. Critically, the treatment did not disturb the beneficial bacteria normally present in the mouth. That stands in contrast to radiation therapy, which both reduces beneficial bacteria and raises levels of the disease-causing yeast Candida albicans.
Antiviral Chewing Gum HNSCC Trials Planned in London and Philadelphia
The scale of the problem the team is addressing is considerable. ‘Lip and oral cavity cancer was the seventh leading cancer type in cancer incidence and mortality rate worldwide in adolescents, young adults, and middle-aged adults in 2022,’ Daniell noted. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports, and Daniell’s team is now pushing to take the work further.
According to AOL’s coverage of the research, the antiviral chewing gum is already being evaluated in London, and similar trials for HNSCC patients will soon be initiated at the University of Pennsylvania. Moving from laboratory results to clinical settings is where many promising therapies stall, and the researchers are clear that these remain early days. Daniell described the findings as supporting ‘the value of advancing these therapies to clinical trials as adjuvants with current treatments or as prophylaxis to prevent infection and transmission.’
The gum format matters practically as well as scientifically. Plant-derived therapies produced at scale tend to be considerably cheaper than conventional biologics, which is one reason Daniell’s lab has pursued this route. An accessible, low-cost preventive tool for a cancer that still carries poor outcomes at advanced stages would represent a genuine shift in how high-risk patients might be managed before or alongside treatment. Whether the clinical trial results match the laboratory data is the question the London and Philadelphia work will now have to answer.
