The Research Unit of the Integrated Area of Talavera de la Reina (Toledo) is going to launch a clinical trial to study the usefulness of olive oil with a high polyphenol content in the prevention of COVID-19 disease. The objective is to check whether the absorption in the oral mucosa of small amounts of olive oil rich in polyphenols has a preventive and mitigating effect of severity in this disease.
The basis of this trial is supported by previous immunological studies in relation to the immune response against SARs-CoV2, where it is about devising an immunotherapy strategy based on the properties of some components of olive oil, polyphenols, which could help to the defenses of the mucous membranes to fight against infection.
In this sense, Francisco Rodríguez Argente, pediatric immunologist at the Hospital General Universitario Nuestra Señora del Prado, dependent on the Integrated Area of Talavera, and principal investigator of the study explained that “we believe that there is a solid clinical and immunopathological basis to sustain that the administration oral mucosa, fasting, a small amount of olive oil rich in polyphenols can help the local immune response of the oropharyngeal mucosa to contain the virus and thus have a preventive and mitigating effect on the severity of the disease caused by Coronavirus”.
For the development of this clinical trial, the Research Unit of the Integrated Area of Talavera will begin a process of recruiting participants, specifically 400 people over 18 years of age selected randomly from among those who have been contacts of positive cases of Covid- 19.
Likewise, to carry out this clinical trial, the Research Unit will coordinate a large team of professionals from different healthcare settings: Emergency, Pediatrics, Allergology, Pulmonology, Primary Care and epidemiological surveillance nurses.
As explained by Joaquín Álvarez Gregori, doctor of the Emergency Service of the Hospital General Universitario Nuestra Señora del Prado in Talavera de la Reina and head of the Research Support Unit (UAI) of the Area, “in addition to the collaboration of the hospital in other studies of research at the national level, this essay is one hundred percent self-made scientific production, which motivates us doubly because in addition to being an original contribution, it places regional and Spanish medicine at the forefront of the fight against this pandemic”.