Cancer drugs can prevent Ebola virus

Some cancer drugs used to treat white blood disease patients can help prevent Ebola virus, and give the body time to control infection before it's too late.

Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (USNIAID) on February 29 said the Ebola virus that appeared in Africa in the 1970s could cause a dangerous dengue fever, causing patients who bleed to death in 90% of cases.

Although rare, the Ebola virus is also considered a potential bioterrorism because its spread is too high, the death rate is too great and there is absolutely no standard cure for it.

Ebola virus

However, some pills that are so familiar to treat white blood disease including nolitinib and imatinib seem to have succeeded in preventing this virus from reproducing in human cells. Main researcher Mayra Garcia of USNIAID and colleagues reported their findings on the Science Translational Medicine weekly .

Through experimenting with human kidney stem cells in the laboratory, they found that the protein called c-Abl1 tyrosine kinase was the main factor determining whether the Ebola virus could reproduce in the human body. . Leukocyte medication works by blocking the action of the protein. This causes a viral protein called VP40 to prevent the release of virus molecules from infected cells, in a process called filovirus expansion.

"The drug targeting the filovirus expansion will prevent infection, allowing the immune system to have time to control infection. Our results suggest injections of nilotinib or imatinib in Short term may be useful in treating Ebola virus infection ".

Imatinib, currently marketed as Gleevec and Glivec, is used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia, a disease caused by the disturbance of c-Abl enzyme activity. Nilotinib, sold as Tasigna, has been used to treat the same disease but for imatinib-resistant patients.

Both drugs are quite safe, although there are some cases of cardiovascular toxicity reported on a small number of patients, when they take the drug for a long time.

According to the World Health Organization, about 1,850 cases of ebola infection have occurred since 1976, with 1,200 deaths. This virus originated in some African fruit bat species. Gorillas and some non-human primates are also susceptible to disease.