In late January, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB) reported in the journal Cell that they have isolated human monoclonal antibodies from Ebola survivors that can neutralize multiple species of the virus.
“We thought we would need five different sets of vaccines or five different (drugs),” said James Crowe Jr., MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center, who led Vanderbilt’s end of the research. “This work suggests there are common elements across different groups of Ebola viruses. Maybe we can come up with one therapeutic or one vaccine that would solve all of them.”
“In this study, a remarkably diverse array of virus-specific antibodies was isolated, which appeared to bind to various parts of the envelope protein of the virus,” said UTMB professor Alexander Bukreyev, PhD, corresponding author of the paper with Crowe who led the UTMB team. “Some of the antibodies neutralized not only Ebola Bundibugyo virus, but also Ebola Sudan virus and Ebola Zaire virus, similar to that which caused the recent outbreak in West Africa,” he continued.
In addition to neutralizing multiple Ebolavirus species, one of the antibodies also protected guinea pigs from a lethal challenge of virus. Previous therapeutics used re-engineered mouse antibodies. “This work points the way to using fully human antibodies as the next generation of antibody therapeutics,” Crowe said. “From the human antibody work … and the vaccine work that’s being done, it’s clear we can find a protective strategy for Ebola. That’s a big step forward.”