Researchers have found that using generic heart disease medications, they can help patients more effectively fight off the Ebola virus. Photo: jaddingt/Shutterstock

WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- Researchers in Sierra Leone found that Ebola patients given inexpensive generic statins and angiotensin receptor blockers showed significant improvement.

While the treatment does not attack the virus itself, the hope is that it will allow the body's immune system to improve enough that, with or even without the help of antiviral drugs, Ebola can be eliminated.


"This approach to Ebola treatment has two advantages," said David S. Fedson, M.D., a retired professor of medicine at the University of Virginia, in a press release. "First, it uses inexpensive generic drugs that are widely available in any country with a basic healthcare system, and most physicians who treat patients with cardiovascular diseases are familiar with these medications. Second, because this strategy targets the host response to infection, these drugs might be used to treat patients with any form of acute infectious disease in which a failure to overcome endothelial dysfunction could lead to multi-organ failure and death."

The two drugs, atorvastatin, best known as Lipitor, and irbesartan, sold as Avapro, were expected by researchers to help the body's response to infection by stabilizing the integrity of endothelial cells lining blood vessels. Endothelial cell dysfunction is a central feature of Ebola, which leads to severe fluid and mineral losses.

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The study involved giving the two-drug combination to 100 patients at several hospitals in Sierra Leone with clinical improvement seen in almost all of them. Two patients had died when the study was written, one who was critically ill before arriving at the hospital and the other responded well to the drugs for three days but relapsed and died when the experimental treatment was stopped in favor of an antiviral.

The study is published in mBio.