New Ebola discovery explains why virus is so deadly

The often fatal Ebola virus has no proven cure or vaccine, but a new study that details how the virus disables a body’s immune response could shed light on a possible treatment for the dreaded disease. “We’ve known for a long time that infection with Ebola obstructs an important immune compound called interferon,” said Dr. Gaya Amarasinghe of Washington University School of Medicine and lead investigator in a press release. “Now we know how Ebola does this, and that can guide the development of new treatments.” The study, which also involved researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, was published online Wednesday in the journal Cell Host & Microbe. When an infection hits the body, a compound called interferon sounds the alarm by sending an antiviral message straight into the nucleus of a cell, triggering an immune response. That messaging process, which researchers...