New 'Trojan Horse' Antibody Strategy Shows Promise Against All Ebola Viruses

Ebola is a virus that the general public tends to freak out about as soon as a case pops up. A lot of this stems from not being educated on the topic but a lot of it also comes from there not being a highly effective or approved vaccine yet. Ebola has killed thousands in Africa so far in about two dozen different outbreaks. Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found a strategy to target an Achilles' heel that all known viruses of Ebola have. So far, two antibodies have been able to stop the invasion of Ebola into human cells. Up until this research, the most promising antibodies were monoclonal antibodies but these only neutralize a specific virus. Ebola virus Zaire has monoclonal antibodies that can neutralize the virus but Sudan and Bundibugyo do not have any antibodies known to neutralize them yet. The goal is to find a monoclonal antibody that protects against all five ebolaviruses. In 2011, a group of researchers were able to expose the Achilles' heel of all of the ebolaviruses. They must all bind to a specific host-cell protein to infect and multiply. This also holds true to the Marburg virus. They realized that if the specific protein was neutralized or if the viral protein that binds was neutralized, Ebola would not be able to multiply. However, these targets lay deep in cells so that the immune system does not see them and antibodies cannot protect them. This is where the "Trojan horse" strategy comes into play. This strategy tricks the virus into carrying the antibody with them into the host cell which would neutralize the virus before it is able to bind and multiply. So far, when tested in the lab when harmless viruses are genetically altered to have all of the glycoproteins from all five ebolaviruses, all five viruses were neutralized. Next, mice were injected with the two most lethal ebolaviruses. The mice did not live due to the fact that the antibodies were specifically designed to bind to the human protein. The researchers plan to test the antibodies on nonhuman primates next. This research could be a huge breakthrough with many viruses. If researchers can continue to find the Achilles' heel for more and more viruses, antibodies could be made more diverse since there is a better understanding. This could protect people from many viruses as a whole.

See more at: http://www.einstein.yu.edu/news/releases/1196/new-trojan-horse-antibody-strategy-shows-promise-against-all-ebola-viruses/#sthash.eZ4rfMru.dpuf