Effective antibodies found to fight Ebola

2016/02/25 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna
• Medikuntza

An international team of researchers has isolated very effective antibodies to combat Ebola from a surviving sample of the 1995 Kikwite plague (Zaire). Today they have published in the journal Science that the results obtained in their tests with monkeys have been very satisfactory, even five days after having infected the treatment with the virus.

The sample of this 1995 plague survivor was taken 11 years later. The first conclusion researchers have drawn is that these antibodies can last more than 10 years in the body. And they have found that three antibodies extracted from this sample are 25% more effective than the combination of Zmapp antibodies, currently tested in humans, when joining the virus.

Two of these three were the most powerful to try in macaques. The day after the infection, with the two antibodies to the macaques together, the macaques did not get sick. And although five days after being infected only one of the two antibodies obtained similar results. Therefore, they expect treatment to be really effective even in cases where the disease starts late.