Mambisa nasal vaccine could prevent COVID-19 transmission
Granma (Spanish) | Tuesday, 25 January 2022 | Click here for original article
Mambisa is Cuba's first nasally administered COVID-19 vaccine to start clinical trials with humans and may also prevent transmission of the virus say scientists.
On 23 January, Cuba’s Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) – tweeted a message that its Mambisa vaccine candidate was being used with people convalescing from COVID-19 and as a booster.
These parameters were evaluated during the development of an adaptive phase I/II clinical trial, randomized, of parallel groups, applied to 120 convalescent adult volunteers, BioCubaFarma specified in the same social network.
In phase 1 trials, 120 volunteers had received the vaccine in the form of spray and drops and results had been compared. In all cases the vaccine candidate had proved to be safe with no serious side effects.
In all the groups studied, Mambisa induced an anti-RBD response in more than four times with respect to the initial level, and the inhibitory capacity against the SARS-COV-2 virus was increased by more than 20%, at a systemic level and in the nasal mucosa.
Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of BioCubaFarma, said that by acting on one of the pathogen's entry points to the body, Mambisa could achieve what has been impossible until now: to definitively cut off the transmission of the coronavirus.
Watch an interview with Eduardo Martinez Diaz (spanish).
