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- Bombali macaque: "mild" strain will help find treatment for deadly Ebola
Bombali macaque: "mild" strain will help find treatment for deadly Ebola
American scientists experimentally infected several macaques with one of the least studied Ebola strains, Bombali. All the animals survived the fever and developed a powerful immune response to the infection. This sample of natural immunity, capable of defeating the virus, can be used to develop treatments for another strain, the deadly Bundibugio. It was he who provoked the current outbreak in Africa. No specific treatment for Bundibugio has yet been found. How a mild strain of Ebola can help in the fight against the deadly virus is described in the Izvestia article.
Have you recovered from Ebola
A group of American researchers has taken an important step towards creating new treatments for Ebola. Scientists have infected macaques with a strain of the Bombali virus, which was first discovered in 2018 in African bats. All the animals involved in the experiment showed characteristic signs of Ebola virus disease, but they survived and formed a powerful immune response to the pathogen, including neutralizing antibodies. Thus, experts have at their disposal a visual model of natural immunity, capable of defeating a deadly virus.
Experimental data "suggest that the Bombali virus may have a weakened disease phenotype compared to more pathogenic Ebola viruses such as the Bundibugio virus. And it can serve as an important model for studying the disease caused by the Ebola virus," the researchers reported in an article in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
The data obtained on the "mild" course of Ebola will help to find treatment for its severe forms, which are currently raging in Africa. The study is especially valuable because the organisms of monkeys and humans are very similar to each other, immunologist Mikhail Bolkov explained to Izvestia.
— This variant in the experiment was able to cause non-fatal Ebola infection in macaques. This model shows how the immune system should work to recover even in severe cases. After all, hemorrhagic fever develops a strongly cascading inflammation with the release of fluid from the bloodstream, and a person loses a lot of blood. Therefore, to save a life, it is necessary to properly regulate the immune system," he said.
In the acute course of the disease, a cascade of inflammations occurs that destroy the body. It turned out that the Bombali proceeds delicately and the acute phase subsides, after which adaptive immunity turns on, which produces antibodies. Such a natural model will help in the creation of medicines and treatment tactics for Bundibugio and Zaire, the specialist added.
The basis for a new vaccine
More than 90 people have already died during the current Ebola outbreak in Africa, which the WHO has recognized as an international emergency. The number of infected people in the center of the epidemic in DR Congo has reached 515. Rospotrebnadzor specialists are working in this country, as well as in Uganda. The World Health Organization has announced the launch of a six-month plan to contain the disease worth $518 million. A deadly strain of Bundibugio is spreading in the region, for which there is no specific treatment yet.
According to doctors, the Bombali strain may be promising as the basis for a new Ebola vaccine. It is structurally similar to traditional Ebola sub-strains, but it is noticeably less pathogenic: it does not cause as many severe forms and deaths, said Andrey Pozdnyakov, an infectious disease specialist at INVITRO.
— In my opinion, this strain is promising for the development of vaccines in a more classical way. Although live attenuated viral vaccines against serious diseases are practically not used now. Either inactivated viruses or artificially formed genetic materials and antigens are used. However, there are strains that develop long-term and stable immunity after infection. This should be studied at least in the context of immunology and vaccinology," said Andrey Pozdnyakov.
Alexander Ginzburg, the scientific director of the Gamalei Center, agrees that the Bombali strain can be used to develop a vaccine against more severe Ebola variants.
— We need to understand the characteristics of this strain and compare how close it is to Bundibugio. If it is closer to it than the Zaire strain, on the basis of which the existing vaccine was created, then such a development is promising," the specialist said.
However, according to Alexander Ginzburg, if Bombali is not fatal, then it probably does not have the genes that lethal Ebola variants have, so the immune response of such a vaccine may be less effective than that of a Zaire-based drug.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
