Ebola test drug saved monkey lives: trial results

An experimental drug saved the lives of
monkeys infected with the Ebola virus strain
responsible for the current west African
outbreak, according to test results published
Wednesday.



It was the first trial in primates with a
treatment specifically targeting the Makona
strain of the haemorrhagic virus that kills
both humans and monkeys, its developers
said.

The results, which are being reported for the
first time, have already been used as
preclinical validation for tests in patients,
which started in Sierra Leone this year.

The first results from those human trials with
the drug, TKM-Ebola-Guinea, are expected in
the second half of 2015, study author
Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas
Medical Branch in Galveston, told AFP.

For the animal testing, Geisbert and a team
infected six rhesus monkeys with the
Makona strain of the Zaire species of the
Ebola virus that has killed over 10,700 out of
some 25,800 people infected in Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone since late 2013.

The specialists then treated three of the
monkeys with their specially-adapted,
strain-specific version of TKM-Ebola — an
experimental treatment that has been given
to Western health care workers who
contracted the disease in Africa, but whose
efficacy in humans has not yet been proven.

The monkeys treated with TKM-Ebola-
Guinea were still healthy when the trial
ended after 28 days, said the team.

The three not given the drug died within eight
or nine days of infection.

“This is the first study to show post-
exposure protection… against the new
Makona outbreak strain of Ebola-Zaire
virus,” Geisbert said.

There is no approved treatment or vaccine
for Ebola, and most drugs being developed
are based on previously-detected strains of
the virus which has caused several
outbreaks since 1976.

The UN’s World Health Organization gave the
green light last August for experimental
drugs to be used in the current outbreak, the
deadliest in history by far.

Several drug candidates are being fast-
tracked through the normally years-long trial
process, and while many have shown
promise, it was not known if they would work
against the Makona strain specifically.

The new drug gets its name from Ebola-
Guinea, the initial title given to the Makona
strain.

The drug, said its makers, can be adapted to
different strains, and can be produced in
eight weeks.

TKM-Ebola works by blocking certain genes
of the virus, thereby halting its replication.