JON Pty Ltd
Question
Asked 20 August 2014
Which potential therapeutic agent do you think is the most appropriate to use in the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa?
The use of antibody based therapy on the two American health workers has opened an ethical debate, in addition to a therapeutic debate on best available options.
Most recent answer
Like most viral diseases which continue to mutate any vaccine or antiviral may be limited to specific mutations. These new products will have unknown long term toxicity effects. Our approach is to use pharmaceutical with a long history of safe use in humans which are readily available. Attached is an example of a PROVIR antiviral formulation which will block entry of Virons into Host cell and stop disease progression. This approach is not mutation specific.
All Answers (5)
National Center for Cancer Care and Research
Very good question I think we are all awaiting the answer
Genvask Contract Research Organization CRO
There is already an answer. DRACO , designed by Todd Rider in MIT, is capable to destroy this virus by inducing apoptosis of infected cells. DRACO means "Double-stranded RNA [dsRNA] Activated Caspase
Oligomerizer", and this is the web site of Dr. Ridder`s work: https://www.ll.mit.edu/news/DRACO.html . I just read tha Mr. Mark Zuckerberg donated a fortune to fight ebola virus. But ¿Did he donate anyhing to Dr. Ridder's research ? Here you can read the news:https://fortune.com/2014/10/14/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-donates-25-million-to-fight-ebola/ . The most effective way to defeat the virus (and any disease) is in a lab through research. For anyone who is interested, this is the DRACO Fund page: https://www.thedracofund.org/
JON Pty Ltd
Like most viral diseases which continue to mutate any vaccine or antiviral may be limited to specific mutations. These new products will have unknown long term toxicity effects. Our approach is to use pharmaceutical with a long history of safe use in humans which are readily available. Attached is an example of a PROVIR antiviral formulation which will block entry of Virons into Host cell and stop disease progression. This approach is not mutation specific.
Similar questions and discussions
Passive immunization for Ebola hemorragic fever?
The use of an experimental drug for Ebola hemorrhagic fever (ZMApp and others) is hopeful, but quantities are very, very limited. It may or may not be effective in humans. It is helpful to point out what these drugs are, and why we think they might help. First, when we catch a virus, our immune systems analyze the virus, rip it to shreds, and create special blood proteins called antibodies which stick to the virus.... The immune response starts producing "version 1.0" antibodies to the virus after 3-7 days. "Version 2.0" antibodies start coming online after 2-3 weeks. Ebola screws up this process a bit, and kills people before the antibody response can really help much. However, somewhere between 10% and 50% of patients DO develop an effective immune response in time to survive, and eradicate the virus from their bodies.
ZMapp and other "anti ebola drugs" are synthetic copies of antibodies. I have to wonder why the countries most affected by the current outbreak are clamoring for a copy, when they have the original at hand? In the 1995 Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, Congo, doctors gave 8 patients transfusions with blood or blood serum from people who had recovered from Ebola infections. 7 out of 8 of the patients receiving the transfusions survived. (http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/179/Supplement_1/S18.full) There is no guarantee that this technique would work the same way in the current outbreak, but there are now hundreds of potential donors of immune serum in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. While there have been several animal trials of passive immunization, some have shown efficacy, and some have not. Has anyone out there any information on human trials of transfer of immune serum since the Kikwit outbreak?
Has anybody worked on natural products that activate Natural Killer (NK) Cells?
In the article below:
Role of Natural Killer Cells in Innate Protection against Lethal Ebola Virus Infection
Kelly L. Warfield,1J eremy G. Perkins,4 Dana L. Swenson,1 Emily M.Deal,1 Catharine M. Bosio,2 M. Javad Aman,2Wayne M. Yokoyama,5Howard A. Young,3 and Sina Bavari1
1United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases,
2Clinical Research Management,and3 Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland 21702 4Department of Hematology and Oncology, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC 20307
5 Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rhuematology Division, Washington University School of Medicine,St. Louis, MO 63110
It was concluded that:
The innate immune system provides early surveillance
and control of viral infections. In this paper, we show that
the innate immune response, specifically NK cells, can mediate
rapid and complete protection against lethal Ebola virus
infection. These observations represent a key advance
in understanding the requirements for protective immunity
against Ebola virus infection. The identification of NK cells
as critical mediators of early protection against Ebola virus
infection are an important step forward in the identification
of prophylactic and therapeutic interventions against filovirus
and other incapacitating acute viral infections. Although
the exact application of these findings to therapeutics
in treating Ebola virus–infected primates and humans is
unclear at this time, therapeutic agents that bolster the innate
immune response, including activation of NK cells,
should be the target of future studies.
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