Human antibodies target Marburg, Ebola viruses; 1 step closer to vaccine

Researchers at Vanderbilt University, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and The Scripps Research Institute, for the first time have shown how human antibodies can neutralize the Marburg virus, a close cousin to Ebola. Their findings, published in two papers in the journal Cell, should speed development of the first effective treatment and vaccine against these often lethal viruses, said James Crowe Jr., M.D., whose team at Vanderbilt isolated and characterized the antibodies. Some of the anti-Marburg antibodies also bound to Ebola Zaire, the viral strain responsible for the West African outbreak that since last spring has killed about 9,000 people and sickened more than 22,000, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. “The good news is, humans do make antibodies when they are infected that can kill these viruses … which suggests that vaccines should work,” said Crowe, Ann Scott Carell Professor and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Center. Alex Bukreyev,...