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Ebola Vaccine On The Horizon?
coryboehne writes "A highly interesting article on the CBS news website gives some very promising information on a fast acting single-shot Ebola vaccine. This is an important step because it will allow an outbreak of Ebola to be stopped quickly."
They already have an Ebola vaccine that works in monkeys. It isn't convenient enough to use large-scale however. It takes multiple shots spread over months and it takes 8 months to build up real immunity to Ebola.
It will be good if one of these research teams succeed in making a fast-acting single-shot vaccine. They talked about this on NPR this morning on Morning Edition I think. www.npr.org
Stop the Slashdot Effect! Don't read the articles!
If this vaccine is going to be tested in Africa why does it need approval by the FDA?
The Television Wiki
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
Is it just me or did other people feel wierd about the monkeys being infected with Ebola 28 days after being given the vaccine...
It would appear that Ebola is not "News for Nerds". Geeks are likely only interested in diseases that are contracted other than by human proximity or contact.
a more informative write up can be found at nature (there's a link to the actual research at the bottom, for those whose institutions suscribe).
rather than infect the host with dead/weakened ebola, they took the ebola gene that is responsible for making the coat protein (the capsid which surrounds the nucleic material), and inserted that gene into the adenovirus genome. andenovirus infects cell. ebola gene is activated and starts making lots of ebola coat protein. host response kicks in and starts making antibodies for both adenovirus proteins as well as ebola proteins (apparently adenovirus triggers big host response, although adenovirus really isn't that dangerous). host now has a plethora of ebola antibodies.
this particular trick should be useful for almost any virus for which the coat protein genes are known.
Health workers in Africa -- the only place the few outbreaks have occurred -- might be the most likely recipients of an approved Ebola vaccine.
Let's hope the medicine will be so cheap that the locals can afford it too. Sadly this will most probably not be the case.
-- Cheers!
"Sure! It's only one shot, and it'll guarentee that you'll never get Ebola again in the rest of your life!"
...
Wait a minute.
(Humor through obscurity, it's fantastic)
I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
I'm hesitant to accept this guy's work. He's made similar claims in the past that never panned out. Now he's claiming that the booster shot is enough to promote resistance, even when other researchers have already tried and discounted this possibility. So whats so special about his monkeys that made the vaccine "work"? I wouldn't put too much faith in this finding until an independent group has confirmed it via repeating the study. He's either just boosted his career to new highs, or he's just killed it. Time will tell.
I've been bleeding profusely from all of my orifices for the past hour...I'm hoping for a quick fix
Please upload it to an FTP server
Thanx
"This is an important step because it will allow an outbreak of Ebola to be stopped quickly."
:)
I love this type of insightful analysis on Slashdot.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
What is this Ebola virus everyone keeps talking about? Is it dangerous? What files do I need to download to add to my anti-virus scanner? I don't want to get my system infect with Ebola if I can help it.
.unsigged