“Breaking news: Ebola virus has been declared as an
international public health emergency by the World Health organization”
That sentence was the first thing I saw when
I logged into Facebook as I’ve started planning and writing this article.
What is the Ebola virus (EBOV)?
The Ebola virus is a very terrible
disease and lethal if caught and it has a high fatality rate of 60% (WHO
01/04/2014) [1] Ebola is
not an airborne virus but it can be spread via bodily fluids such as sweat and
its recommended that you don’t shake hands with anyone who could potential
carry the disease or has recovered and still in recuperation period.
EBOV is a negative sense RNA virus that
can cause severe and often fatal haemorrhagic fever in humans. Once being subjected
to the virus and within a matter of days the Ebola virus causes havoc to the
body systems, it sets the immune system into overdrive; disrupting its method
of work, lowers blood pressure below normal; eventually leading to heart
failure. The problem is that there is no specific treatment or vaccine for the
Ebola virus.
[[ Definition:
Negative sense RNA means that the RNA strand 3’ to 5’ position and has a
nucleotide sequence complementary to the mRNA that it encodes. Like DNA, this
RNA cannot be translated into protein directly. Instead it must first be
transcribed into a positive – sense (5’ – 3’ strand). ]]
It has been found that the species of
fruit bat is the virus’ natural host and acts as a “reservoir” for the deadly
virus [2], and it doesn’t
help that this species is widely hunted in Liberia (where Ebola started) and
could have been the main reason for the spread of the virus.
There is
currently no cure or vaccine currently for Ebola. But keeping patients
rehydrated can help recovery. However there is a little bit of hope in the new
(but untested) drug called ZMapp. ZMapp is a drug created by Mapp
biopharmaceutical Inc and has helped in treating two victims of EBOV.
ZMapp is a
type of drug from the monoclonal antibody family. Monoclonal antibodies are known for their typical
“y-shape” formed from two light chains (Fab fragments) attached to a heavy
chain (Fc fragment) via disulfide bonds. Each monoclonal antibody has a
specific binding affinity to a specific protein [3] [4]. ZMapp
is made of two components one called MB-003 (Mapp) and the other called ZMAb
(Defyrus/PHAC) and works by preventing the virus
from entering and infecting new cells.
Although
ZMapp is still under trial and has not been tested in humans and has only been
made in small quantities so there is still issues as to who it can be given to.
But ZMapp has been trailed on Non- human primates (NHP’s) and it has been found
that it has treated them and allowed recovery from Ebola [5] Once the WHO have finished human trials on the
drug and their discussions, it could be mass produced to treat and counteract
EBOV.
Here
is a simple and descriptive video about how virus’ work in the body:
___________________________
References
[1] Du Toit, Andrea. "Ebola virus
in West Africa." Nature
Reviews Microbiology 12.5
(2014): 312-312.
[2] Leroy, Eric M., et al. "Fruit
bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus." Nature 438.7068 (2005): 575-576.
[3] Ayithan, Natarajan, et al.
"Ebola Virus-Like Particles Stimulate Type I Interferons and
Proinflammatory Cytokine Expression Through the Toll-Like Receptor and
Interferon Signaling Pathways." Journal
of Interferon & Cytokine Research 34.2
(2014): 79-89.
[3] G.L Patrick (2009) An Introduction To Medicinal
Chemistry, 4th edn., Oxford: OUP.
[4] Cancer research UK
(2012) About monoclonal antibodies, Available at: http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-help/about-cancer/treatment/biological/types/about-monoclonal-antibodies
(Accessed: 4th March 2013).
[5] Qiu,
Xiangguo, et al. "Successful treatment of Ebola virus–infected cynomolgus
macaques with monoclonal antibodies." Science
translational medicine 4.138
(2012): 138ra81-138ra81.
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