Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Cocktail of antibodies is proving to protect monkeys from Ebola


The Ebola virus was brought to the forefront of global attention during the outbreak from 2013-2016 in which almost 30 thousand people were affected and more than 11 thousand in West Africa died at the hands of the virus. An ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is already the second largest outbreak of Ebola on record, putting a lot of pressure on the medical community to find a medical countermeasure to the viral agent. So far, the US government has approved no countermeasures, but research is looking promising.

On January 10th, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institution of Infectious Disease announced that they have been able to successful make a cocktail of various monoclonal antibodies that can protect monkeys against all three strains of Ebola even when administered as late as a week after infection. The mixture, called MBP134, is made up of two monoclonal antibodies (originally found in the blood of one of the survivors of the 2013-2016 outbreak), which have been found to have an enhanced effect when paired together. While previous mixtures of mAbs have been able to protect guinea pigs, this modified version is the first with the ability to protect a primate species. Ideally, this is one large step closer to finding a vaccine for humans.

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-India Robinson


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