Tekmira Ebola drug succeeds in small monkey study

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REUTERS by Aharon Begley                                                                    Aug. 22, 2015
NEW YORK --An experimental Ebola drug from Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp cured all three monkeys intentionally infected with the virus, scientists reported on Wednesday, the first such success against the strain of Ebola in West Africa's 2014-2015 outbreak.

Although other experimental treatments appeared to help Ebola patients last year, especially in the United States, those one-time uses cannot prove efficacy against the "Makona" strain, since patients' recovery might be due to other causes. Similarly, drugs, including Mapp Biopharmaceutical's ZMapp, cured monkeys in lab experiments, but in a strain of Ebola different from that responsible for the current outbreak, the worst ever recorded.

"We can't say for certain that an experimental drug that works against one strain will work in another, even if they're almost identical genetically," said Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch, senior author of the study published in the journal Nature.

In the experiment, six rhesus monkeys were infected with huge doses of the Makona strain. Three days later, three received an infusion of the Tekmira product, a cocktail of "small-interfering RNAs" (siRNAs) encapsulated in a fat droplet called a lipid nanoparticle. The siRNAs bind to two of the virus's seven genes, silencing them and thereby preventing the virus from replicating.

All three treated monkeys survived despite fevers and enormous blood levels of virus. Three untreated monkeys became so ill they were euthanized within nine days.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/22/health-ebola-tekmira-idUSL1N0XH0Z720150422
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Lipid nanoparticle siRNA treatment of Ebola-virus-Makona-infected nonhuman primates

NATURE MAGAZINE           April 22, 2015

Link to Nature Magazine article.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14442.html

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THE JOURNAL FRENDSWOOD    By Frankie L. Trull, Foundation for Biomedical Research             April  22, 2015  

GlaxoSmithKline and Merck have started testing new Ebola vaccines in Liberia. The companies are racing to cure a disease that has claimed more than 9,500 lives and infected more than 23,900 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. The World Health Organization will decide in August on the possibility of widespread implementation.

Animal research is vital to the study of disease -- and is the primary reason why scientists have hope that they'll be able to cure Ebola and other emerging infectious diseases....

The information gleaned from the study of disease progression in animal models is invaluable -- and cannot be replaced by cells grown in a dish or computer models.

For decades, ethicists have agreed that animal studies must precede human trials...

Read complete article.

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/friendswood/opinion/trull-to-cure-ebola-look-to-animals/article_9c2e8b66-ff57-51e5-bb60-0bc6cc5457c8.html

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