Spanish researchers develop universal Ebola vaccine



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Spanish researchers have begun work on the development of a vaccine that they hope will be effective against all strains of Ebola, announced their director Wednesday in Madrid. 19659003] These researchers from the Madrilenian public hospital of October 12 have been working for months, in collaboration with two other institutions in the Spanish capital, on blood samples from three patients suffering from the virus and treated in Spain.

Rafael Delgado, director of this team of researchers, the three patients developed antibodies "very effective" against the disease but in "small quantity" and only effective against the Zaire strain.

A challenge: to be effective against all the strains of the virus

The "challenge" of these researchers is now to "produce these antibodies on a large scale, through a vaccine" that can be effective. "Rafael Delgado, head of the microbiology department of this hospital."

According to Rafael Delgado, the difficulty lies in the fact that the Ebola virus protects itself with carapaceous proteins. exposes its vulnerable areas for a short time, which complicates the action of the immune system.

The microbiologist said he hoped to see the results of tests in mice by one year

Several experimental vaccines

An experimental vaccine, with the technical name rVSVSV-ZEBOV, has already been developed in the wake of the worst Ebola epidemic, the most violent in history, that hit West Africa between late 2013 and 2016, causing more than 11,300 deaths

Administered in May in the DRC, this vaccine, developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada – licensed by NewLink Genetics who in turn Licensed to the Merck & Co Group – was found to be "very effective" by the World Health Organization (WHO) but only against the Zaire strain.

The US Johnson & Johnson laboratory is developing its share an experimental vaccine against two strains

Spain had recorded in 2014 the first person contaminated outside Africa. Teresa Romero, a caregiver, contracted hemorrhagic fever in Spain, caring for a missionary repatriated from Sierra Leone who died of the disease in a Madrilenian hospital.

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