A study points to a new approach to antibodies to fight Ebola and other infections

LONDON, (Reuters) – Scientists working on the development of Ebola vaccines have discovered that they can "harvest" antibodies from vaccinated volunteers during research trials and use them to treat the virus. Fatal viral infection.

In a study published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports, scientists said that this approach could be used to fight Ebola and other emerging deadly diseases caused by viruses.

The technique, based on people exposed to the Ebola vaccine but not to the Ebola virus itself, suggests that protective therapies could be developed from people without disease.

"It's a small extra step that could lead to new antibody-based therapies with an increased pool of donors and reduced risk," said Alain Townsend, professor at the University's MRC Human Immunology Unit. Oxford, in Great Britain.

In addition to the Ebola virus, many experimental vaccines against other potentially life-threatening infections, such as the H5N1 and H7N9 avian influenza virus and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), are entering clinical trials and could offer similar opportunities for collection of antibodies.

The Ebola virus is now spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where data from the World Health Organization indicate that at least 676 people have been killed and more than 700 others infected during an outbreak which started eight months ago.

The largest Ebola outbreak in history swept through Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea in 2013-2016, killing more than 11,000 people. This epidemic has spurred a global push for the development of vaccines and treatments – and some of them, including a protective vaccine developed by Merck and several antibody-based therapies for infected patients, have were deployed during the outbreak in Congo.

Antibodies intended for treatment are normally taken from the blood of people who have survived the infection. But they can also be difficult to obtain and withstand increased risks such as potentially persistent viruses or other pathogens.

The Oxford team decided to try to use blood from test volunteers who had received an experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus and whose immune system had reacted by making antibodies. They managed to isolate 82 antibodies from 11 volunteers undergoing trial at the Jenner Institute in Oxford.

They found that despite the short time they had available to develop, one-third of the antibodies were effective in neutralizing an Ebola strain known as Zaire – the one that was causing the Congo epidemic.

The scientists then created a four-antibody badtail treatment to treat six guinea pigs when given three days after infection.