Cuba is focusing its efforts on advancing vaccine candidates that induce cellular immune response against the four serotypes of the dengue virus, a strategy reviewed by Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of BioCubaFarma, at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), according to that organization's Facebook page.
Martínez Díaz had told Granma newspapers that, since these vaccines involve four serotypes, it is important that they protect against all of them, which makes their effective implementation a bit difficult, therefore they are working on several lines and development strategies.
For some time now, several projects related to this disease have been underway, the executive explained. Such processes have been accelerated at the request of the First Secretary of the Party and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
The expert explained that the CIGB is in charge of the research together with the Pedro Kourí Tropical Medicine Institute (IPK), and highlighted that they have works based on bioinformatics and the study of the interaction of the virus with its receptor. Based on this knowledge, they are designing molecules that have a specific antiviral effect against dengue; for example, to prevent the virus from entering the cell.
In a recent meeting of the Temporary Working Group for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and dengue, Doctor of Science María Guadalupe Guzmán Tirado, director of the IPK Research Center, pointed out that Cuban scientists have devoted decades of work to this disease and have made contributions to the world in the fight against it.
She added that Cuba has played a fundamental role in the new classification of dengue fever by the World Health Organization (WHO), with and without warning signs, aimed at preventing the patient from evolving to the serious stages of the disease.
Translated by ESTI
