A pill has managed to cure monkeys infected with the Ebola virus. These results, published in the magazine ‘Science Advances‘They could pave the way for more practical and affordable treatments in humans.
Ebola, first identified in 1976 and considered a virus that spread from bats, is a deadly viral disease that spreads through direct contact with body fluids and causes serious bleeding and organic insufficiency.
Because the outbreaks mainly affect sub -Saharan Africa, pharmaceutical companies have lacked financial incentives to develop treatments and the sporadic nature of shoots has hindered clinical trials.
The vaccine was only approved in 2019, and although two treatments with intravenous antibodies improve the results, they require expensive cold storage and are difficult to administer in some of the poorest regions in the world.
“We are trying to find something that is more practical, easier to use, than can be used to help prevent, control and contain outbreaks,” Thomas Geisbert, a virologist at the medical branch of the University of Texas in Galveston, who directed the published study, told AFP.
For their experiment, Geisbert and his colleagues tested the Obeldesivir Antiviral, the oral form of intravenous sedivir, originally developed for COVID-19.
Obeldesivir is a “polymerase inhibitor”, which means that it blocks a crucial enzyme for viral replication.
The team infected Rhesus and Cynomolgus with a high dose of the Makona variant of the Ebola virus.
A day after the exhibition, ten monkeys received an Obeldesivir pill for ten days, while three control monkeys did not receive treatment and died. Obeldesivir protected 80% of cynomolgus macaques and 100% of Rhesus macaques, which are biologically closer to humans.
The medicine not only eliminated the blood virus of the treated monkeys, but also triggered an immune response, helping them develop antibodies and avoiding damage to the organs.
Geisbert explains that, although the number of monkeys was relatively small, the study is statistically blunt because they were exposed to an extremely high dose of the virus, approximately 30,000 times the lethal dose for humans. This reduced the need for additional control monkeys, which limited unnecessary deaths of animals.
The researcher, who has worked in Ebola since the 1980s and who is attributed to the discovery of the reston strain, points out that one of the most exciting aspects of the Obeldesivir is his protection of “broad spectrum”, compared to treatments with approved antibodies that only work against the Zaire species of Ebola.
Currently, the pharmaceutical manufacturer Gilead is advancing with Obeldesivir to phase 2 of clinical trials for the Marburg virus, a nearby relative of Ebola.
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