A possible treatment and cure may
have been discovered for the deadly Ebola virus, according to the article “New
Trojan-Horse strategy shows promise against all Ebola Viruses”. Multiple
studies performed at Albert Einstein College of Medicine show that a newly
developed bispecific antibody could stop the outbreaks of Ebola.
Ebola
targets its victims by using a protein that sticks out from the virus to attach
to the outer membrane of a host cell. The membrane then surrounds the virus and
pinches off, forming a lysosome, giving the virus access to the inside of the
cell. Next, the virus binds to a specific protein (NPC1) in the lysosome
membrane by a “lock and key” mechanism and then can finally push its RNA to the
cytoplasm of the cell where it can replicate and take over the cell.
Scientists
developed an antibody that attacks both the “lock” on the NPC1 and the “key” on
the protein of the virus. Only by stopping both can they be completely sure
that the treatment will work on all different strains of Ebola. The antibody is
compared to the Trojan Horse in the article because it is able to enter as deep
into the cell as a lysosome by entering with the virus itself.
The treatment
has been tested by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases on human cell tissue and rats. The results have been positive,
showing that this antibody does neutralize the reproduction of all strains of Ebola throughout a
cell. Rat anatomy is slightly different than that of humans, and as a result
the desired results were not obtained, but that was expected. The next step
will be for the antibodies to be tested at the nonhuman primate level because
the anatomy is similar.
I chose
this article because I am interested in pathological research. My close friends
were living in western Africa during 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic. They were
quarantined to their houses for weeks and then sent back to the United States
after medical testing. I cannot imagine the fear that was felt while in that
region, knowing that at anytime a deadly disease could infect you. The world
goes into panic every time an epidemic happens and if this antibody really does
work, it could solve a huge problem we face in society and future outbreaks
could be avoided.
This was interesting to read because I love learning about pathological matters and cures. And the first paragraph mentioned the phrase "newly developed bispecific antibody." What is that? And what is the Trojan Horse strategy?
ReplyDeleteAbove comment made by Lindsay C
DeleteIt's always great to hear "Possible cure found", but what does that really mean? We know that within the United States the process for new drugs and medicines is extensive and takes years to go "from lab to patient". How long will it take for this research to start affecting the lives of those people living in Africa? Or will it sit inside a test lab for 10+ years while many more people die in the mean time?
ReplyDeleteOn the reverse side, is this treatment safe? Could we plausibly put extra funds and manpower into this research enough to streamline the treatment into an approved form and really start making a difference world-wide?
Joseph Sneddon
This article says that "the desired results were not obtained" from the experiments with rats, and yet the title suggests that this new strategy could be a potential cure. Are we putting the cart before the horse here? It sounds like a good idea but the results we are looking for have not been obtained yet, and a lot more research must be done before we can make any decisions. Don't get me wrong though, this would be amazing if it worked! This article was very interesting to me though because I was unaware of the way that Ebola actually worked and it was crazy to read about your friends who were in the middle of an Ebola breakout! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteKierstin McCoy
KAM
The scientist expected to get failed results with rats because rat and human anatomy are different. Like it says in the post, the next step would be to test in something more similar to humans and see if it really could work. Sometimes the best way to find out if a treatment really does work is to just go straight to the actual subject. I have worked on a clinical study team for an experimental drug to cure macular degeneration for about a year. After it was determined that the drug had no toxic effects, we were able to move forward testing on humans although it did not work the way we had hoped with lab testing. Our results show that the treatment really does help humans! Sometimes that is the only way to find out!
DeleteK. Hansen
One thing that I'm curious about is this "lock and key" mechanism. How exactly does it work? And how does the antibody work to shut off/disable that mechanism?
ReplyDeleteWS
Lock and key mechanisms is basically like when a substrate binds to an enzyme at it's active site, then it goes and does whatever it is supposed to do. The active site is the lock, and the key is a specific substrate that matches the shape of the active site. The way that it would shut down or disable the mechanism is that the antibody would ideally attach itself to the enzyme and change it's shape so that the protein or substrate wouldn't fit the active site and not be able to bind to it so it wouldn't be able to move on and take over the cell.
Delete-A.G