4 ms·

Experimental Ebola drug cured 100% of monkeys tested

80 points by zefi 12y ago

cocolos 12y ago
Last I checked I thought we were more closely related to primates not monkeys--not sure if that's of any significance.
- i80and 12y ago
  Apes, I think you mean; both apes and monkeys are primates.
- tejon 12y ago
  Monkeys are primates. Oh, let's see if I can remember the main groupings... Primates -> > Lower Primates -> > > Tarsiers > > Aye-Ayes > > Lorises > Lemurs & Red Pandas > Simians -> > > New World Monkeys > > Old World Monkeys > Hominoids -> > > Gibbons & Siamangs > > Great Apes -> > > > Orangutans > > > Gorillas > > > Chimpanzees -> > > > > Chimpanzee > > > > Bonobo > > > > Humans
  - Crito 12y ago
    Wiki has humans and chimpanzees/bonobos in different subtribes, so humans wouldn't be under "Chimpanzees ->": Tribe Hominini Subtribe Panina Genus Pan Chimpanzee (common chimpanzee), Pan troglodytes Central chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes Western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes ellioti Eastern chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii Bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee), Pan paniscus Subtribe Hominina Genus Homo Human, Homo sapiens Anatomically modern human, Homo sapiens sapiens
    - tejon 12y ago
      Yeah, it's not the mainstream classification but it's been proposed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Chimpanzee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Chimpanzee) and I find it entertaining. So. ;)
      - lotsofmangos 12y ago
        I particularly like Pans Narrans as a classification. Though I suspect that Pans Superbia might be unfortunately closer to the mark.
ams6110 12y ago
Geisbert notes that about half of Ebola patients survive without taking ZMapp. What is the actual mortality rate? I have heard reports varying from 40% to 90%.
- dylz 12y ago
  It varies by subtype.
  - hga 12y ago
    Indeed. There were 5 classified types prior to this outbreak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebolavirus#Classification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebolavirus#Classification With the Zaire strain, now just called plain Ebola virus, normally with an observed fatality rate of 83% or 76% (two figures from different Wikipedia articles) and up to 90%, and at the other end a Reston ebolavirus with no fatalities among exposed lab workers. This West African outbreak has been sequenced and is a Zaire strain with plenty of mutations that perhaps have significantly dropped its fatality rate, see this section and the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_virus_outbreak#Fatality_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_virus_o...
- hughlomas 12y ago
  http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea/index.html http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea/index.html Current outbreak appears to be around 50-55% mortality.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  According to More or Less, 90% was the mortality rate of one particular historical outbreak. http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moreorless http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moreorless http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreorless_20140829-1631a.mp3 http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreor... edit - It also says that 52% is the current figure on this outbreak and that if you count up all cases, then Ebola has a mortality rate of 60-65%.
zaroth 12y ago
The best way to control the current outbreak is with traditional measures: diagnosing patients, isolating them, tracing their contacts and testing them, and extending the process out in circles, until all exposed patients have been isolated. I was wondering about the software they use to track this process, if any? Say, for example, you get the manifest for a plane where a passenger was infected. If you wanted to track infections from that point, which is unlikely but possible, that's a lot of work. And if it spirals out from there?
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ck2 12y ago
I really hope someday computer simulations become so detailed and accurate that we don't have to test on animals anymore.
- atom-morgan 12y ago
  There's a small bit about this in the video "Humans Need Not Apply". Go to the ~10 minute mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
pflanze 12y ago
This is using antibodies, i.e. works on the principle of passive immunity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_immunity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_immunity By calling it a "drug", and that its way of action 'is unknown' etc., the article makes it sound a bit like they were talking about the engineering of a new chemical compound, when in fact the way of action seems straight-forward. The new work will probably just be in details of the production and perhaps embedding or some such of the antibodies. Maybe my rejection stems from my native language (German) calling treatments like this "passive Impfung", literally "passive vaccination", while we seem to reserve the word "Medikament" (drug) for non-biologic actors.

80 points by zefi 12y ago

cocolos 12y ago

Last I checked I thought we were more closely related to primates not monkeys--not sure if that's of any significance.

i80and 12y ago
Apes, I think you mean; both apes and monkeys are primates.
tejon 12y ago
Monkeys are primates. Oh, let's see if I can remember the main groupings... Primates -> > Lower Primates -> > > Tarsiers > > Aye-Ayes > > Lorises > Lemurs & Red Pandas > Simians -> > > New World Monkeys > > Old World Monkeys > Hominoids -> > > Gibbons & Siamangs > > Great Apes -> > > > Orangutans > > > Gorillas > > > Chimpanzees -> > > > > Chimpanzee > > > > Bonobo > > > > Humans
- Crito 12y ago
  Wiki has humans and chimpanzees/bonobos in different subtribes, so humans wouldn't be under "Chimpanzees ->": Tribe Hominini Subtribe Panina Genus Pan Chimpanzee (common chimpanzee), Pan troglodytes Central chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes troglodytes Western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes ellioti Eastern chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii Bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee), Pan paniscus Subtribe Hominina Genus Homo Human, Homo sapiens Anatomically modern human, Homo sapiens sapiens
  - tejon 12y ago
    Yeah, it's not the mainstream classification but it's been proposed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Chimpanzee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Chimpanzee) and I find it entertaining. So. ;)
    - lotsofmangos 12y ago
      I particularly like Pans Narrans as a classification. Though I suspect that Pans Superbia might be unfortunately closer to the mark.

ams6110 12y ago

Geisbert notes that about half of Ebola patients survive without taking ZMapp. What is the actual mortality rate? I have heard reports varying from 40% to 90%.

dylz 12y ago
It varies by subtype.
- hga 12y ago
  Indeed. There were 5 classified types prior to this outbreak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebolavirus#Classification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebolavirus#Classification With the Zaire strain, now just called plain Ebola virus, normally with an observed fatality rate of 83% or 76% (two figures from different Wikipedia articles) and up to 90%, and at the other end a Reston ebolavirus with no fatalities among exposed lab workers. This West African outbreak has been sequenced and is a Zaire strain with plenty of mutations that perhaps have significantly dropped its fatality rate, see this section and the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_virus_outbreak#Fatality_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_West_Africa_Ebola_virus_o...
hughlomas 12y ago
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea/index.html http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea/index.html Current outbreak appears to be around 50-55% mortality.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
According to More or Less, 90% was the mortality rate of one particular historical outbreak. http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moreorless http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moreorless http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreorless_20140829-1631a.mp3 http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/moreorless/moreor... edit - It also says that 52% is the current figure on this outbreak and that if you count up all cases, then Ebola has a mortality rate of 60-65%.

zaroth 12y ago

The best way to control the current outbreak is with traditional measures: diagnosing patients, isolating them, tracing their contacts and testing them, and extending the process out in circles, until all exposed patients have been isolated. I was wondering about the software they use to track this process, if any? Say, for example, you get the manifest for a plane where a passenger was infected. If you wanted to track infections from that point, which is unlikely but possible, that's a lot of work. And if it spirals out from there?

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

ck2 12y ago

I really hope someday computer simulations become so detailed and accurate that we don't have to test on animals anymore.

atom-morgan 12y ago
There's a small bit about this in the video "Humans Need Not Apply". Go to the ~10 minute mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

pflanze 12y ago

This is using antibodies, i.e. works on the principle of passive immunity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_immunity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_immunity By calling it a "drug", and that its way of action 'is unknown' etc., the article makes it sound a bit like they were talking about the engineering of a new chemical compound, when in fact the way of action seems straight-forward. The new work will probably just be in details of the production and perhaps embedding or some such of the antibodies. Maybe my rejection stems from my native language (German) calling treatments like this "passive Impfung", literally "passive vaccination", while we seem to reserve the word "Medikament" (drug) for non-biologic actors.