Structure of Bundibugyo survivor antibodies (colors) bound to viral glycoproteinSCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE; CHARLES MURIN, ANDREW WARDFrom blood samples of survivors of a 2007 Ebola outbreak in Uganda, researchers have isolated antibodies that are protective and can neutralize two other species of Ebolavirus, including Zaire ebolavirus—the one responsible for the massive 2014 outbreak in West Africa. The binding specificities of these human monoclonal antibodies and their activity in animal models of Ebolavirus appeared today (January 21) in Cell.
“What is exciting is that the authors demonstrated that cross-reactive antibodies exist in survivors, and these antibodies are protective in animal models,” Larry Zeitlin, president of Mapp Biopharmaceutical, who was not involved in the current study but is collaborating with its authors as part of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded project to develop and test vaccines and therapeutics against Ebolaviruses, told The Scientist in an email. “This gives real hope that a single product could be developed for treating all the Ebolavirus species.”
“This is a very good paper,” said Lisa Hensley, who has worked on the pathogenesis of viruses including Ebola and is associate director for science at the NIH’s Integrated Research Facility in Maryland. “Looking in people who survived Bundibugyo ebolavirus,” the ...
