Background: The diagnosis of Ebola virus disease relies on the detection of viral RNA in blood by real-time reverse-transcription PCR. While several of these assays were developed during the unprecedented 2013-2015 Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa, few were applied in the field.
Objectives: To compare technical performances and practical aspects of 11 Ebola virus real-time reverse-transcription PCR procedures.
Study Design: We selected the most promising assays using serial dilutions of culture-derived Ebola virus RNA and determined their analytical sensitivity and potential range of quantification using quantified in vitro transcribed RNA; viral load values in the serum of an Ebola virus disease patient obtained with these assays were reported. Finally, ease of use and turnaround times of these kits were evaluated.
Results: Commercial assays were at least as sensitive as in-house tests. Five of the former (Altona, Roche, Fast-track Diagnostics, and Life Technologies) were selected for further evaluation. Despite differences in analytical sensitivity and limits of quantification, all of them were suitable for Ebola virus diagnosis and viral load estimation. The Lifetech Lyophilized Ebola Virus (Zaire 2014) assay (Life Technologies) appeared particularly promising, displaying the highest analytical sensitivity and shortest turnaround time, in addition to requiring no reagent freezing.
Conclusions: Commercial kits were at least as sensitive as in-house tests and potentially easier to use in the field than the latter. This qualitative comparison of real-time reverse transcription PCR assays may serve as a basis for the design of future Ebola virus disease diagnostics.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2016.01.017 | DOI Listing |
Dendritic cells connect innate and adaptive immune responses. This is a particularly important immune checkpoint in the case of emerging infections against which most of the population does not have preexisting antibody immunity. In this study, we sought to test whether antibody-based delivery of Ebola virus (EBOV) antigens to dendritic cells could be used as a vaccination strategy against Ebola virus disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMar Drugs
January 2025
Nebraska Center for Virology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583, USA.
Filoviruses, mainly consisting of the two genera of and , are enveloped negative-strand RNA viruses that can infect humans to cause severe hemorrhagic fevers and outbreaks with high mortality rates. However, we still do not have effective medicines for treating these diseases. To search for effective drugs, we have identified three marine indole alkaloids that exhibit potent activities against filovirus infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenes Genomics
January 2025
Department of Medicine, BioSystems Design Lab, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 06974, Korea.
Background: This study explores the cross-fertilization of transgenic tobacco plants to produce dual-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting Ebola virus-like particles and HER2 proteins. We generated F plants by hybridizing individual transgenic lines expressing the anti-HER2 breast cancer VHH mAb (HV) and the H-13F6 human anti-Ebola large single chain mAb (EL).
Objective: Hybridizing transgenic plants to express dual-antibodies between different structures VHH and LSCK indicate the potential of transgenic plants as a cost-effective and scalable production system for dual targeting mAbs.
J Immunol Methods
January 2025
Institute of Biomedical Systems and Biotechnology, Peter the Great Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University, 29 Ulitsa Polytechnicheskaya, St. Petersburg 194064, Russia; Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza, Russian Ministry of Health, 15/17 Ulitsa Prof. Popova, St. Petersburg 197376, Russia; Institute of Experimental Medicine, 12 Ulitsa Akademika Pavlova, St. Petersburg 197376, Russia.
Background: Rapid vaccine platforms development is crucial for responding to epidemics and pandemics of emerging infectious diseases, such as Ebola. This study explores the potential of peptide vaccines that self-organize into amyloid-like fibrils, aiming to enhance immunogenicity while considering safety and cross-reactivity.
Methods: We synthesized two peptides, G33 and G31, corresponding to a segment of the Ebola virus GP2 protein, with G33 known to form amyloid-like fibrils.
Gene
January 2025
Department of Computer and Information Science (IDA), REAL, AIICS, Linköping University, Sweden; Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Techno International New Town, Kolkata, India. Electronic address:
The goal of this research work is to predict protein-protein interactions (PPIs) between the Ebola virus and the host who is at risk of infection. Since there are very limited databases available on the Ebola virus; we have prepared a comprehensive database of all the PPIs between the Ebola virus and human proteins (EbolaInt). Our work focuses on the finding of some new protein-protein interactions between humans and the Ebola virus using some state- of-the-arts machine learning techniques.
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