'Safe Ebola' Created for Research

Nephrite writes "By removing a gene from the virus Ebola, UW-Madison scientists have managed to stop the deadly pathogen from replicating. This first step may be a start down the path to a vaccine or drug screening. 'The scientists still want the virus to replicate in order to study it, so they developed monkey kidney cells which contained the protein needed. Because the cell was providing the protein, and not the virus itself, it could only replicate within those cells, and even if transferred into a human, would be harmless.'"

Comments

Hmmm..

[BlueStrat]

Does anyone else hear that quote from that movie Jurassic Park "Life always finds a way" when they see this? I mean, what could possibly go wrong, huh? Other than a little hemorrhagic(sp?) fever?

Cheers!

Strat

cancer and vaccines

[wizardforce]

The scientists still want the virus to replicate in order to study it, so they developed monkey kidney cells which contained the protein needed. Because the cell was providing the protein, and not the virus itself, it could only replicate within those cells, and even if transferred into a human, would be harmless.'"

apparently this is also an area of cancer research as well. cripple a virus so that it can only live in cancer cells and let it destroy the party. vaccines are created from deactivated viruses, breeding the viruses in an environment where their ability to infect human cells is no longer an advantage eventually leads to a weakened form of the virus, specifically crippling viruses OTOH may be far more useful in this regard. it's also a way to make sure the virus stays confined, if it needs a certain component only found in a lab setting [GMed cells with a particular enzyme for example] it would be that much harder to do any real damage even if it did escape.

FYI, there is already an ebola vaccine

[wildgeechi]

Its currently in human trials and has 100% efficacy. They don't even need the virus on hand to R&D the vaccine, and only conduct actual FDA trials at a BSL 4 site

Creationist Idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like an idea that only a creationist could love. If God invented the Ebola virus, then removing a gene should create a permanently harmless version. If evolution created Ebola, then it's almost certain this "harmless" Ebola will re-evolve the capacity to infect and kill the Homo genus.

Re:Before you panic

[BigGar']

Not that entirely correct.
The strain Ebola-Reston is airborne, fortunately, it appears, the air-borne mutation also makes it non-lethal to humans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_Reston/

This is how weaponized strains are made

[tietokone-olmi]

See, biological weapons in the trivial sense aren't very useful. It's no good if your troops catch the superflu or megagonorrhea too, you know?

Therefore in order for a strain to be adequately weaponized, it needs to be developed into something that 1) takes effect [i.e. incapacitates] very quickly after exposure, 2) doesn't linger [unless an area denial weapon is sought] and 3) doesn't spread too far outside those affected by the original deployment. This is why anthrax is close to an ideal biological weapon in its base form already: its spores carry a far greater risk of catching the actual bug than exposure to someone already affected, unless you're literally a cow that is.

So now we have an Ebola variant that doesn't spread. That's one out of three aspects done, and all under the guise of medical research. Were it Iran or North Korea or Pakistan doing this sort of research, they'd have US nukes up their bums in no time flat.

Don't be surprised that when the US invades Iran during the next prez's term, there will be reports of "enemy combatants" mysteriously discharging blood from every bodily orifice upon coming into weapons range from Coalition Troops. These will be hushed up and termed conspiracy theories, because by definition the US doesn't engage in biological warfare...