Study: vaccine may protect against Ebola
NIH researchers find that vaccine incorporating a common pediatric respiratory pathogen may be effective against the dreaded Ebola virus
Few viruses are as scary as the Ebola virus. Good thing, too, then, that Now researchers from the National Institutes of Health have found a topical respiratory tract vaccine, tested for the first time in primates, which might protect against the dreaded virus. That virus produces a contagious form of severe hemorrhagic fever with a high mortality rate in humans. It is also considered to be a high risk for use as a biological weapon.
The esearchers developed a vaccine incorporating a common pediatric respiratory pathogen — and administered it by respiratory route to rhesus monkeys. Some monkeys were immunized once and others twice — then all were given a highly lethal dose of the Ebola virus. Results showed a single immunization protected 88 percent of the animals against severe hemorrhagic fever and death, while all those receiving two doses not only survived and were symptom free, but no Ebola virus was found in their bloodstream. “To our knowledge, this is the first study in which topical immunization through respiratory tract achieved prevention of a viral hemorrhagic fever infection in a primate model,” the researchers said.
The study is reported in Alexander Bukreyev et al., “Successful Topical Respiratory Tract Immunization of Primates against Ebola Virus,” Journal of Virology 81, no. 12 (June 2007): 6379-88 (sub. req.)
