Discovered drug against Ebola and Marburg viruses

Discovered drug against Ebola and Marburg viruses.

(25.08.2010) Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases on our planet, but fortunately one of the rarest. Since, especially in the US after September 11 and the anthrax attacks, the fear of bioterrorist attacks with viruses has increased enormously, researchers have since spared no effort to find a cure.

Now, US Army researchers have seen initial successes in finding medicines for Ebola and the nearly as deadly Marburg virus. In monkey trials, 60 percent of the animals infected with the Ebola-Zaire strain survived their disease just after infection with the drug „Avi 6002“ were treated. When Marburg virus could with the drug „Avi 6003“ even a 100 percent cure success can be achieved, the researchers of the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) told the journal „Nature Medicine“.

Ebola's disease is one of the most terrible known illnesses on our planet and, according to the Ebola strain, it kills approximately 90 percent of infected people and 100 percent of infected monkeys. Those who get infected after about 10 days of incubation first lethargic, vomits, gets high fever and begins to bleed from all pores. Thus, internal bleeding, bleeding into the tissue (bruises), blood in the stool and urine, as well as skin and mucous membrane haemorrhages are characteristic of the course of the disease often accompanied by liver and kidney dysfunction with edema. In the final stage of the disease, the internal organs literally dissolve and usually lead to the associated bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, the spleen and in the lungs then to the death of the patient. Shortly before death, the risk of infection through contact with those affected is particularly high, since the body fluids exiting from all pores are highly contagious.

The now-researched antidote is designed to boost the body's immune defenses by blocking genes that the virus needs to replicate. Thus, the body gains time and your own immune system can respond better to the infection. So is through the use of „Avi 6002“ The spread of Ebola virus in the blood after one week is about 100 times lower than in patients without treatment.

Since Avi-6002 must be administered immediately after infection, it is rather poor for use in remote regions, but is more likely to be used in acute epidemics such as: For example, the onset of the disease in a hospital or accidental infection in the laboratory, the drug can be very helpful.

The previously tested only on animals effectiveness of the drug should be tested according to the plans of the manufacturer AVI BioPharma, which works closely with the US military, now also in human testing. However, it is primarily to determine the side effects, so that the drug can then receive its marketing approval. Because with such dangerous viruses as Ebola, conventional studies for market approval can not take effect and the natural occurrence is too rare or unpredictable to use it for study purposes. Thus, in such diseases, a market approval of appropriate antidotes by the FDA exceptionally permitted if they could prove their effectiveness in animal studies and the side effects in healthy people were not too far-reaching. To the approval procedure for „Avi 6002“ & „Avi 6003“ To conclude, the FDA has now approved tests with human volunteers, in which the side effects of the new drugs can be checked.
The US Department of Defense, in particular, is under tremendous pressure to authorize the product, as the fear of terrorist attacks is particularly high and contracts have already been negotiated with researchers AVI BioPharma for further cooperation. For example, AVI BioPharma is pleased to announce that it has already signed an agreement to secure $ 291 million for future research.

However, these $ 291 million would be useful for development aid and the like „America enemy“ In the fight against the feared bioterrorism, far more would have been gained than by the discovery of a vaccine for a disease that has killed approximately 1,200 people worldwide since its discovery in 1976. (Fp)