Italian Firm Says Vaccine Neutralizes COVID-19 in Human Cells

An Italian firm claims to have developed a vaccine that neutralizes coronavirus in human cells, reports The Science Times.

Takis Biotech is the company developing the coronavirus vaccine candidate.

"This is the most advanced stage of testing of a candidate vaccine created in Italy," Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO of Takis, told the Italian news agency ANSA.

"Human tests are expected after this summer," he added.

Scientists at Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Italy found mice injected with the vaccine developed antibodies that can block the virus from infecting human cells.

Aurisicchio said the hospital was the first in the world so far "to have demonstrated a neutralization of the coronavirus by a vaccine. We expect this to happen in humans too."

Researchers at Spallanzani are also using the electroporation injection technique, which consists of an intramuscular injection followed by a brief electrical impulse.

"So far, the immunity generated by most of our five vaccine candidates has an effect on the virus," Dr. Emanuele Marra from Takis said. "We expect even better results after the second vaccination."

More than 3.5 million people have been infected with coronavirus worldwide, and more than 260,000 have died. In Italy, nearly 30,000 have died.

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