Antibody strategy for ebola virus
I chose this because i'm fascinated by how we can stop diseases and viruses and what goes into stopping them. This article tells a new way we are trying to stop the ebola virus. Basically it's a ‘Trojan horse’ has they put it, The virus need a host cell to get into the body and it attaches to a lysosome to do that. How they are going to stop it is by stopping the protein that binds to it (NPC1) or stopping NPC1 itself. The only problem is that the virus hides deep inside the lysosome so it is invisible to the immune system. They are trying to trick the virus to taking the antibody into the lysosome with it. “They two types of "bispecific" antibodies, each consisting of two monoclonal antibodies combined into one molecule. One bispecific antibody was devised to neutralize the viral protein that binds to NPC1, the other to target NPC1. Both had one monoclonal antibody in common: antibody FVM 09, which binds to the surface glycoproteins of all ebola viruses while the virus is outside cells, allowing the bispecific antibodies to hitch a ride with the virus into the lysosome.” This is how they described it it's a lot better than I could. All they had to do now is test it. They put a harmless virus in with the antibody and incubated those antibodies with the harmless Ebola viruses and then added that to human cells in tissue culture. They work for all 5 types of the ebola virus. Next they have to test it in primates.
This article is very interesting because it sheds alot of light on how Ebola works and how people were being more and more panicked as it spread. And i'm glad to see that a through investigation of the Virus is taking place even after the media hype has stopped for the time being.
ReplyDelete-Jacob C
It's amazing to see them taking steps like these in the right direction. Especially with something that has brought itself so much attention. Are there any side-effects to this? Or has it not been used and studied enough? J. RYAN
ReplyDeleteOne question I had was if we know when they will start testing this new method for the ebola virus? The reason it interests me is because the faster something like this gets studied and tested the faster thousands of people effected can possibly get better.
ReplyDeleteSkyler H.
Skyler, that is a great question and one I had myself. After doing a little bit of research, it shows that we are pretty far out from actually being able to put this into humans. One article I read said we are about 3-5 years out to being able to effective prove it won't kill the human we are testing. After that, it could be much longer to get it into mass production for the public.
DeleteNP
What does "Trojan Horse" mean?
ReplyDeleteB.C.
"Trojan Horse' refers to a battlefield tactic used by the Greeks in the Trojan War. To get into the impenetrable city of Troy, the Greeks constructed a massive wooden horse, left it outside the city gates, and then 'retreated.' The people of Troy thought it was a 'retreatment gift' and brought it into their city, along with the soldiers hidden inside the horse's belly. Once the city was asleep, the soldiers exited the horse (we're not told from which part of it) and opened the city gates. The Greeks had decided to come out of retreatment and arrived just in time to enter the city and destroy it.
Delete-BG
This is a great article on how ebola works and a possible solution. It brings up a number of questions about the possible treatments. If this were to work for human trial, how expensive would this treatment be? It makes me think of those in third world countries that would benefit greatly from this drug.
ReplyDeleteNP
I'm wondering what research institutes are implementing this new research? Since Ebola is not as prevalent anymore, I'd be interested to see if they are still working hard to resolve the disease and how far the testing is.
ReplyDeleteSkyler H.
that is a great question. as mention in another comment it looks like we are closer than ever, but we still have a few year ahead before they even start studying on humans. I imagine those studies will take a long time, too. Hopefully, somehow the process is sped up.
DeleteA.G
Interesting article about curing Ebola. The problem that I see is that viruses are able to evolve rapidly. Even scientists can get the Ebola virus to take the antibody how do they stop new strains from developing. - T Anderson
ReplyDeleteI concur. I am in full support of this, but I have been researching Ebola for some time now and the virus has evolved in several regions of Africa into a more deadlier type specified mostly to humans!
DeleteHW
how old is this study? it seems like Ebola was crazy, then just disappeared... are they still studying this for future uses. or is Ebola just not shown so much? it would be great if we are able to prevent another out break,
ReplyDeleteI didn't even remember Ebola until this article and also I am surprised because we never really realized when it just stopped or disappeared out of the now where. I wonder what happened to all those who did get Ebola and what is going on with it right now.
DeleteSteph S.
This is a very interesting article on how Ebola works and a possible Trojan horse solution. I wonder how this could be further tested in humans and would like to see the great effects this has on the world and especially 3rd world countries. - C. Martin
ReplyDeleteI remember when there was a huge out break of Ebola and now it's like gone. It's interesting to try to "hitch a ride" with the disease! I am not sure if they should start testing in animals yet though, unless they know it won't hurt or kill them.
ReplyDelete-B.N.K
I remember when there was a huge out break of Ebola and now it's like gone. It's interesting to try to "hitch a ride" with the disease! I am not sure if they should start testing in animals yet though, unless they know it won't hurt or kill them.
ReplyDelete-B.N.K