Finding the Ebola virus’ vulnerable points

We know what antibodies stop it in its tracks—we now know where they attach. The latest Ebola outbreak has dwarfed any that have occurred since the discovery of the virus in 1976; previous outbreaks have had lethality rates of up to 90 percent. Yet no vaccines or therapies are currently approved for human use, which limits our ability to treat patients and contain the outbreak. Mixtures of monoclonal antibodies are a potential treatment option that has been used experimentally. Monoclonal antibodies bind to a single structural feature on an infectious agent, such as the Ebola virus. These antibodies act as markers to flag down immune cells that destroy the foreign matter. Some antibodies can also be neutralizing, in that they block the harmful biological effects of a virus or prevent the budding of new virus particles. Mixtures of antibodies increase the treatment’s efficacy by limiting the opportunity of a mutant virus to...