IT sounds like something out of a spy movie.

A compound called miramistin was developed for the Soviet Union’s Cold War space program. It can kill coronaviruses, influenza A, HPV and HIV, and was secreted away from the West and only now just rediscovered by scientists in the United Kingdom.

But the truth is a little less cloak-and-dagger and more a matter of circumstance and language barrier.

“Almost all the papers are in Russian or Ukrainian. Only two I think there was ever published in the English language,” said David Denning from the University of Manchester, a co-author of a new U.K. study on miramistin.

Denning’s colleague and lead author on the new study, Dr. Ali Osmanov, is from Ukraine, where miramistin is still used in a clinical setting. He brought the antiseptic to Manchester’s research team for further — and more up-to-date — study.

“Miramistin has been overlooked in the West, and may have practical and environmental advantages,” Osmanov said in a press release. “Today, antiseptics act as a ‘last frontier’ against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and viruses, and also have an important role in infection control. Unfortunately, currently used antiseptics have some flaws.”

“For example, bleach can exacerbate asthma, and many of the older antiseptics are not active against coronaviruses,” he added.

Miramistin has three major things going for it: It’s likely low toxicity, biodegradable, and has a lower likelihood of encouraging the growth of antibacterial-resistant “superbugs” than certain other antibacterials.

For instance, compare it to triclosan, the antibacterial compound that has been banned from body washes in the United States and has been singled out for creating antibiotic-resistant germs.

Miramistin works because it damages the cell directly and is less likely to cause resistance than penicillin, for instance, which binds to the target cell that can become resistant over several generations of cell replication.

In addition, triclosan and other antibacterials like it which have a structure are such that they take a long time to break down in nature.

Meanwhile, miramistin has no known genotoxic effects and biodegrades somewhere between 88 and 93 percent, the researchers found.

All of that is good news for miramistin’s broad potential application as a surface antiseptic in more Western countries, perhaps in frontline hospitals where strong antiseptics are needed, and superbugs tend to develop and run rampant.

But don’t expect miramistin to be a COVID-19 killer just yet. It is effective on other coronaviruses but has yet to be tested on SARS-CoV-2.

Though it will likely be effective at killing that too, Denning said, a clinical trial is necessary before we can be certain.(SD-Agencies)