American scientists have found monoclonal antibodies in the blood of Ebola survivors of the Republic of the Congo, which helped cure monkeys after being infected with the deadly virus. Now doctors are ready to move on to human testing.
According to Science Daily, scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the United States studied blood samples from people who survived the 1995 Ebola fever in the city of Kikwit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Experts found that the survivors retain antibodies to the Ebola virus.
Subsequently, researchers at the Institute for Biomedicine Research in Switzerland isolated specific antibodies for potential use as a therapeutic agent against Ebola. These antibodies were used by American scientists to treat monkeys. They administered a lethal dose of the Ebola virus to four monkeys. Five days later, three monkeys were injected intravenously daily for three days with a monoclonal antibody known as mAb114. The monkey that did not receive such treatment died on the ninth day, the rest of the macaques survived.
The researchers then looked at how mAb114 neutralizes the Ebola virus and found that it binds to the core of the Ebola glycoprotein protein, blocking its interaction with human cell receptors.
As the authors of the work note, these are the first antibodies that have demonstrated the ability to neutralize the disease by interacting the virus with cellular receptors.
Note that there is currently no licensed treatment for Ebola, which has resulted in more than 11,000 deaths between 2014 and 2015 following the virus outbreak in West Africa.
Alexander Kornev