Ebola: A Solution on the Horizon
By Olaide Adekanbi, Behavioral Neuroscience, 2017
In recent history there have been major disease outbreaks that have caused worldwide panic and fear. There was the Mad Cow Disease scare in the late 90’s and the more recent Swine flu in 2009. Now another disease outbreak has commanded the attention of millions around the world. The virus commonly known as Ebola (Zaire ebolavirus) has serious implications for those who are so unlucky to come face to face with it.
Since March, the most recent outbreak of the deadly virus has claimed almost 3,000 lives in over 6,000 reported cases. While this strain doesn’t have the highest frequency of death for the virus, its rapid spread in countries like Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone is increasing at an alarming rate. So much so, that doctors, scientists and public officials all over the world have been on a mad dash to find a vaccine that could potentially save thousands if not millions, of lives.
Several studies have been developed in hopes of combating the deadly virus, including ones from NewLink Genetics in Iowa and from corporate giant Johnson and Johnson. One vaccination that holds promise however, is part of a study spearheaded by the National Institutes of Health in conjunction with researchers from the British pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline.
In August, Daphne Stanely and her team of researchers published a paper in Nature Medicine about the vaccine that they have developed which has had major success during primate trials. Within the vaccine is the Ebola virus glycoprotein encapsulated in a chimpanzee-derived replication-defective adenovirus (ChAd) vector, which has been the most effective of many alternatives considered, including human derived vectors. Researchers believe that it has been the most effective because of the lack of natural immunity humans have to ChAd, its low levels of replication inside of the recipient of the vaccination, and also major genetic differences that separate it from other less effective vectors.
During the primate trials, the vaccine was injected into four groups of the primate Cynomologous macaques which were then infected with the Ebola virus weeks later. Of the infected macaques, all that were vaccinated survived, whereas all that were not vaccinated died within a week of the initial infection. As a result of the success in the primate stage of research, human clinical trials have already begun in Bethesda, Maryland, with hopes of having results by the end of this year.
As it seems like research is rapidly moving in a promising direction, we can only hope that in these next few months the vaccine is successful and may distributed throughout the world before the disease is able to claim many more lives.
Nature Medicine, DOI:10.1038/nm.3702
