Researchers decode the immune response to Ebola vaccine

The vaccine rVSV-EBOV is currently used in the fight against Ebola virus. Since 2018, more than 200,000 people have been vaccinated. However, how the vaccine actually works was only partially known. The research team led by Prof. Dr. Florian Klein from the Cologne University Hospital and the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF) managed to decode the antibody response triggered by rVSV-EBOV. Their findings were just published in the journal Nature Medicine. Following the dramatic Ebola epidemic in West Africa from 2013 to 2016, viral infections have spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2018. Since then, more than 2,100 deaths have been reported and the number of victims and new infections increases daily. To contain the epidemic, the recombinant vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV is used. This vaccine combines attenuated vesicular stomatitis viruses (VSV) with the envelope protein of the Zaire Ebolavirus (ZEBOV). Scientists led by Prof. Klein were able to show how...