Breakthrough vaccine could protect against Ebola virus

In a breakthrough discovery, it has been revealed that scientists in the US have developed a single shot vaccine that could protect people from the deadly Ebola virus.

If the vaccine – which has been used successfully on monkeys – proves similarly effective in humans, it may one day allow scientists to quickly contain Ebola outbreaks with ring vaccination. This was the same strategy used in the past to eradicate smallpox.

The findings – published in this week’s issue of Nature – is the result of collaboration between scientists at the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center (VRC), part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).

“This research has enormous public health implications not only because it might be used to limit the spread of Ebola virus, which continues to emerge in central Africa, but also because this vaccine strategy may be applied to other highly lethal viruses, such as the Marburg and Lassa fever viruses and the Sars coronavirus, that cause acute disease outbreaks and require a rapid response,” said NIAID Director Anthony Fauci.

The VRC scientists immunized eight monkeys with a single boost injection, consisting of attenuated carrier viruses containing genes for important Ebola antigens. The monkeys were then delivered to USAMRIID where they were injected with an Ebola virus strain obtained from a fatally infected person from the former Zaire in 1995. The single vaccine injection completely protected all eight animals against Ebola infection, even those who received high doses of the virus.

Scientists at the VRC had been pursuing the so-called “prime-boost” vaccine strategy against a variety of infectious diseases. Prime-boost is a two-part process: first, an injection of non-infectious genetic material from the disease-causing microbe primes the immune system to respond; second, several weeks later, an injection of attenuated carrier viruses containing key genes from the microbe substantially boosts the immune response.

(GMcG)