Ebola Virus: Development of Vaccines and Therapeutic Drugs


Posted August 22, 2014 by lorrainegenscript

The 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus highlights the urgent need to develop an effective vaccine to prevent the spread of this deadly virus, and effective therapies to improve survival rates among those infected with Ebola.

 
The 2014 outbreak of Ebola virus highlights the urgent need to develop an effective vaccine to prevent the spread of this deadly virus, and effective therapies to improve survival rates among those infected with Ebola. A DNA vaccine candidate should begin clinical trials in humans this year, and investigational drugs in development to treat patients suffering from viral hemorrhagic fever include monoclonal antibodies, siRNA-based therapeutics, and antiviral small molecule drugs.

Ebola Vaccines
(preventative drugs) currently in development:
Researchers are developing a vaccine for Ebola that contains an attenuated live virus, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), a common livestock pathogen, into which an Ebola viral coat protein has been introduced. With funding from the US DOD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Newlink Genetics Corp has licensed an Ebola vaccine candidate developed by researchers at the Public Health Agency of Canada and are poised to begin human clinical trials before the end of the month of August 2014. Newlink is working with manufacturers to scale up production of the drug so that tends of thousands of doses could be available within a few months.
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Issued By lorraine xu
Country United States
Categories Health
Last Updated August 22, 2014