Texas scientists develop universal treatment for full-blown Ebola

Tom Geisbert, right, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, with then-Gov. Rick Perry in 2014. Geisbert is the primary investigator on a study of a new medication that could better treat full-blown cases of ebola. less Tom Geisbert, right, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, with then-Gov. Rick Perry in 2014. Geisbert is the primary investigator on a study of a new ... more Photo: Jennifer Reynolds, Associated Press Photo: Jennifer Reynolds, Associated Press Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Texas scientists develop universal treatment for full-blown Ebola 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

Texas scientists who developed an effective vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus are now reporting promising results with new medication to better treat full-blown cases of the disease.

In a laboratory study published this week, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston showed a single injection of two antibodies successfully treated monkeys infected with all strains of the virus, a significant advance on current treatment options which only cover one strain and require multiple injections.

“This medication would give doctors an advantage in situations where we don’t know which strain of Ebola is going to pop up next,” said Thomas Geisbert, a UTMB professor of microbiology and immunology and the study’s primary investigator. “The fear now, with all our eggs in one basket, is we’ll get burned with the outbreak of a strain there’s no protection against.”

Geisbert said the study results, published Wednesday in Cell Host & Microbe, suggest the medication would be effective even if Ebola viruses evolve over time, and Larry Zeitlin, president of Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., the drug manufacturer, said it should “reduce the burden on health-care workers in the field during outbreaks.”

The broad-spectrum injection killed the virus in 100 percent of monkeys infected with the Sudan and Bundibugyo strains and the particularly lethal Zaire strain, the source of the 2013-2016 West Africa outbreak and the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unlike mice, monkeys are considered highly predictive of treatment effectiveness for tropical diseases such as Ebola.

Ebola is considered one of the world’s deadliest plagues. It caused about 11,500 deaths — about 50 percent of those infected — in the 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa, and 377 more in the Congo, where another 101 suspected cases are under investigation.

Ebola caused much alarm in the United States in 2014 when Liberian citizen Thomas Duncan developed symptoms during a trip to Dallas. The hospital there only recognized his illness as Ebola during a return appointment, when the course of the disease was very advanced. He was the first U.S. case — and death — of Ebola.

Geisbert said it is unclear if the medication, known as MBP134, could have saved Duncan had it been available then, given how late he was diagnosed. But he said he thinks it would have enabled treatment in Africa of health-care workers who contracted the disease there and had to be evacuated to the U.S. or Europe, where they recovered. He specifically mentioned Dr. Kent Brantly, the Fort Worth medical missionary who became the first American to return to the United States to be treated for the disease.

Brantly, who does not complain of lingering symptoms that some others do, was out of the country Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

New medications are increasingly being used in the Congo to treat Ebola, most notably ZMapp, which was initially deployed late in the first outbreak. But those medications work only against the Zaire strain and require multiple injections, a challenge in Third World settings. ZMapp, for instance, must be given three times, each a few days apart, and by infusion which takes up to five hours. The single infusion of MBP134 only takes minutes.

“That’s a huge advantage in chaotic outbreaks or reactive settings where it’s often difficult to track down and identify patients to give them a second dose,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.

Hotez added that “of course, all of this needs to be confirmed in human clinical trials.” He said the current outbreak in the Congo “looks like a good time for such an evaluation.”

Geisbert said production of MBP134 could be ramped up quickly whenever health officials want to use it. His team is currently researching whether the medication can be injected in muscle rather than intravenously and whether a lower dose might be just as effective, which would make it less costly to produce.

In the study, Geisbert’s team injected Macaque monkeys and ferrets infected with either the Sudan, Bundibugyo or Zaire strains of Ebola. The human predictive reliability of ferrets, a new disease model Geisbert’s team is using, is not as well established as monkeys.

All 12 monkeys and 12 ferrets gradually got better and were healthy a few weeks later. The treatment was given between four and seven days after the animals began experiencing symptoms, depending on the speed with which the particular strain is known to progress. In the Zaire strain, for instance, the injection was given on the fourth day.

The injections took three to five minutes, said Geisbert.

Geisbert and a Canadian colleague developed the primary Ebola vaccine being used in Africa. It was introduced late in the West Africa epidemic, perhaps as it was already petering out, and its deployment in the Congo outbreak has been hampered because of ongoing conflict and violence in the region.

“Vaccines are great, but they’re challenging because of logistics,” said Geisbert. “What we’re trying to achieve here is to deal with people with full-blown Ebola. As much as you want to vaccinate, people still walk into clinics sick.”

todd.ackerman@chron.com

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