Successfully modulate Ebola treatment serum in monkeys

Chinese scientists have successfully prepared a type of Ebola serum in monkeys, opening a positive hope for resistance to the "death" virus that causes high mortality rates and no vaccine available. prevent this.

Information published in the US issue of Science Translational Medicine over the weekend.

Serum MIL77E is made up of two monoclonal antibodies 13C6 and 2G 4, having the same mechanism of action as the serotype of three ZMapp antibodies - permitted by the World Health Organization (WHO) for use in human treatment. Ebola infection during the epidemic in West Africa in the past two years.

Medical staff treating Ebola patients at Donka Hospital in Conakry, Guinea.(Source: AFP / VNA).

Xiangguo Qiu, a Canadian biologist from the Public Health Agency and research leader, said that after the trial, all three monkeys treated with the MIL77E drug were negative for Ebola after three days of infection with this virus.

According to the expert, if the MIL77E is effective in treating Ebola, the cost of treating this dangerous disease with MIL77E will be lower than other drugs being tested.

Previously, American experts successfully tested the Ebola virus ZMapp serum for the first two American patients, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol.

After being treated with a serum made up of three antibodies and a substance made from genetically modified tobacco leaves, the health of both doctors improved markedly. However, ZMapp has the disadvantage that it is difficult to produce on a large scale.

Ebola bacteria are named after a small river in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The infection is caused by contact with the blood and body fluids of several animal species, mainly monkeys and a large bat species of the family Megachiroptera. People infected with Ebola can transmit the disease to healthy people through sex.

According to WHO, since the February 2014 outbreak in West Africa, the Ebola virus has now killed 11,300 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. The organization warned that the risk of Ebola re-outbreaks was very high because there was no effective preventive vaccine, and emphasized the need for a timely and effective response to new suspected cases.