Boston University professor Thomas Geisbert and team of scientists may be close to finding cure for Ebola
The Daily Free Press
June 4, 2010
The infectious Ebola virus has long been a threat to global health due to its high mortality rate and potential for use in biological weapons. However, Boston University scientists may be reaching a cure.
Scientists kept macaque monkeys from dying after exposing them to extreme amounts of Ebola as a part of a study by BU, the Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The breakthrough was published in the May 28th edition of The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal, and partially funded by the Department of Defense.
“I’ve been working with Ebola for 20-something years… it’s just something that I never thought we’d be able to do,” said Thomas Geisbert, the lead author of the study and a professor at the BU School of Medicine.
Though researchers have had some success developing vaccines to treat Ebola in the past, this is the first major study that has protected animals with a 100 percent success rate after they’ve been exposed, he added.
To achieve this, the scientists developed a technology based on small interfering RNA, which, as the name suggests, interferes with the process of gene expression. Using technology provided by Tekmira, they were able to apply this process to the disease as expressed in animals. The siRNA is used to stop the virus’ “replication machinery,” Geisbert said.
“It’s the first time that anyone’s been able to ever… completely protect a primate against the most lethal form of Ebola virus in their species,” Geisbert said, adding that the strain of the virus they use usually results in a 90 percent mortality rate.
