Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a deadly disease. The virus is still so mysterious and severe illness can kill up to 90 per cent of its victims. Since its discovery, scientists have raced to create vaccines and treatments like monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to eradicate the deadly disease.
Now a new study has revealed that monkeys infected with Ebola can be cured with a pill. According to a report by Science Alert, if effective this pill could enable more practical, affordable treatments in humans.
The viral disease spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, causing severe bleeding and organ failure. The findings of the study were published in the Science Advances journal.
“We’re really trying to come up with something that was more practical, easier to use, that could be used to help prevent, control, and contain outbreaks,” Thomas Geisbert, a virologist at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, who led the new study told news agency AFP.
Geisbert and his team tested the antiviral Obeldesivir, the oral form of intravenous Remdesivir, originally developed for Covid-19. The team infected rhesus and cynomolgus macaques with a high dose of the Makona variant of the Ebola virus.
A day after getting exposed to the Ebola virus, ten monkeys then received an Obeldesivir pill daily for ten days, while three control monkeys received no treatment and died. The study found that Obeldesivir protected 80 percent of the cynomolgus macaques and 100 percent of the rhesus macaques, which are biologically closer to humans.
According to the researchers, the drug not only cleared the virus from the treated monkeys’ blood but also triggered an immune response. This helped the monkeys develop antibodies while avoiding organ damage.
Although the number of monkeys was relatively small, the study was statistically powerful as the monkeys were exposed to an extraordinarily high dose of the virus – roughly 30,000 times the lethal dose for humans, Geisbert explained. This reduced the need for additional control monkeys which limited unnecessary animal deaths.
Pharmaceutical maker Gilead is currently advancing Obeldesivir to Phase 2 clinical trials for Marburg virus, a close relative of Ebola, Science Alert reported.