Editorial Team
... Read More
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookie Policy.
Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : April 10, 2015 1:48 PM IST
The Ebola outbreak which gripped West Africa a few months ago was one of the most scariest pandemics, the world has seen. With high rate of spread and a high fatality rate, developing preventive and treatment therapies is the need of the hour. The pandemic made way for scientists to develop new therapies.
Scientists from across the world are now trying to develop preventive vaccines for Ebola and clinical trials of a few have already begun. Created by an interdisciplinary team from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and Profectus BioSciences, Inc., the vaccine, effective against Ebola Zaire with a single dose in a nonhuman primate model, has been undergoing testing in the Galveston National Laboratory, the only fully operational Biosafety Level 4 laboratory on an academic campus in the U.S. (Read: Ebola update: Trial rules Ebola vaccine safe for human use)
This new vaccine employs a virus not harmful to humans called vesicular stomatitis virus that had a part of the Ebola virus inserted into it. This 'Trojan horse' vaccine safely triggered an immune response against Ebola Zaire. UTMB professor Thomas Geisbert said that the findings may pave the way for the identification and manufacture of safer, single dose, high efficiency vaccines to combat current and future Ebola outbreaks. (Read: Russian scientists develop Ebola vaccine)
To address any possible safety concerns associated with this vaccine, the team developed two next generation candidate vaccines that contain further weakened forms of the vaccine. Both of these vaccines produced an approximately ten-fold lower level of virus in the blood compared to the first generation vaccine.Chief Scientific Officer, John Eldridge, said that the findings show that their candidate vaccines provided complete, single dose protection from a lethal amount of the Makona strain of Ebola virus.Both weakened vaccines have features of the Mayinga strain of Ebola virus, as do most other candidate Ebola Zaire vaccines currently under evaluation. The original 1976 Mayinga strain and the new West African Makona strain are quite similar. The researchers said it was important to test their candidate vaccines on the Makona strain to ensure that even small differences between the strains didn't impact the effectiveness of the vaccine.
The findings are published in Nature.
With inputs from ANI
Image source: Getty Images
For more articles on Ebola virus, visit our Ebola virussection. For daily free health tips, sign up for our newsletter.
