US researchers believe that a newly identified protein may be the vulnerable factor of the Ebola virus.
Research published in the latest issue of mBio, the online journal of the American Society for Microbiology, said scientists believed a protein called Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) was critical for Ebola to infect a host. This finding could hold the key to developing an effective preventative vaccine.
Ebola Virus Disease
Ebola is caused by a virus via direct contact with body fluids or infected blood. Scientists have identified five types of Ebola or Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus.
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"Our study reveals NPC1 to be an Achilles heel for Ebola virus infection," said co-study leader Kartik Chandran, Associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University.
There are currently no federally approved treatments for Ebola in the United States, and all of the therapies in development elsewhere are designed to attack the virus. Targeting NPC1 is the first host-based therapeutic approach to combat the disease, which claimed thousands of lives during a devastating outbreak in West Africa last year, the worst in history.
![Latest Data on Ebola Virus Rules Out Rapid Accumulation of Deadlier Mutations]( "Latest Data on Ebola Virus Rules Out Rapid Accumulation of Deadlier Mutations")
The Ebola virus evolved as it spread to new areas but it did not change at a faster rate than it has in past outbreaks in the west across Sierra Leone.
Previous in vitro studies had shown that Ebola enters host cells by binding directly to NPC1 and that blocking the virus's ability to latch on to the protein prevented infection.
Investigators exposed three different kinds of mice to the disease -- normal mice, mice which had been genetically engineered to be completely deficient in NPC1 and mice engineered to have both a normal and a mutant NPC1 level to see whether this process was repeated in living organisms.
While normal mice died from Ebola infection after nine days, mice deficient in NPC1 were completely free of the virus. "Mice lacking both copies of the NPC1 gene, and therefore devoid of the NPC1 protein, were completely resistant to infection," said Chandran.
"NPC1 is absolutely essential for in vivo pathogenesis, and if you can disrupt this, there are no signs of Ebola virus replication or pathogenesis," added Andrew Herbert, Senior research scientist in the Viral Immunology Branch at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland.
Source: Medindia
Latest Data on Ebola Virus Rules Out Rapid Accumulation of Deadlier Mutations
The Ebola virus evolved as it spread to new areas but it did not change at a faster rate than it has in past outbreaks in the west across Sierra Leone.
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Previous in vitro studies had shown that Ebola enters host cells by binding directly to NPC1 and that blocking the virus's ability to latch on to the protein prevented infection.
Investigators exposed three different kinds of mice to the disease -- normal mice, mice which had been genetically engineered to be completely deficient in NPC1 and mice engineered to have both a normal and a mutant NPC1 level to see whether this process was repeated in living organisms.
While normal mice died from Ebola infection after nine days, mice deficient in NPC1 were completely free of the virus. "Mice lacking both copies of the NPC1 gene, and therefore devoid of the NPC1 protein, were completely resistant to infection," said Chandran.
"NPC1 is absolutely essential for in vivo pathogenesis, and if you can disrupt this, there are no signs of Ebola virus replication or pathogenesis," added Andrew Herbert, Senior research scientist in the Viral Immunology Branch at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland.
Source: Medindia
Kenya Lifts Travel Ban from Liberia After It was Declared Ebola-Free by WHO
However, Doctors Without Borders has urged the government to be cautious until the disease is completely extinguished in neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone.
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 Italian Male Nurse Working With an NGO in Sierra Leone Tested Positive for EbolaThe Italian nurse who contracted the ebola virus will be transferred to the capital's Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital, which specializes in infectious diseases. | Advertisement
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