Posted on 06/17/2012 9:54:57 PM PDT by neverdem
Regime extends treatment window from minutes to hours.
Monkeys infected with Ebola have been cured by a cocktail of three antibodies first administered 24 hours or more after exposure. The result raises hopes that a future treatment could improve the chances of humans surviving the disease caused by the deadly virus, which kills up to 90% of infected people and could potentially be used as a biological weapon. Most treatment regimes tested to date only improve chances of survival if administered within one hour of infection.
Researchers based at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Canada, administered an antibody cocktail named ZMAb to cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) infected with the Zaire virus — the deadliest strain of Ebola, prevalent in African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon. All four of the monkeys that began the three-dose treatment regime within 24 hours of being infected survived. Two of four monkeys given the cocktail from 48 hours of infection also lived. A monkey that was not treated died within five days of infection.
“The antibodies slowed replication until the animals’ own immune systems kicked in and completely cleared the virus,” says Gary Kobinger, a medical microbiologist at the University of Manitoba who led the study. The results are published today in Science Translational Medicine1.
The antibodies, isolated from mice vaccinated with fragments of the virus, target and neutralize a glycoprotein on the surface of the virus that allows it to enter and infect cells. Although the strategy of using antibodies is not new, Kobinger says that, unlike many previous treatments, his group's cocktail contains multiple antibodies that each target different locations of the glycoprotein, making it harder for the virus to resist attack. Many other regimes that have been tested in animals and discarded were pre-exposure vaccines that focus...
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
Ebola ping!
FReepmail me if you want on or off my combined microbiology/immunology ping list.
Suspect that in addition of the issue of ‘when’ to get this cocktail; will be the question of ‘who’. . .
Suspect that in addition of the issue of ‘when’ to get this cocktail; will be the question of ‘who’. . .
Suspect that in addition of the issue of ‘when’ to get this cocktail; will be the question of ‘who’. . .
Don’t believe it for a second.
Ping....(Thanks, neverdem!)
May be hope for Bill Maher yet!
Whew!!! That was close!
Thanks for the ping!
Great! Monkey love will be fashionable again!
Scientists keep on dying . . .
You’re Welcome, Alamo-Girl!
Looks like the monkeys were the lucky ones to be “on the list” then.
Great book I am reading - The Coming Plague.
Thanks for the links.
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