5 ms·

Ebola whole virus vaccine shown effective, safe in primates

114 points by alexcasalboni 12y ago

mellavora 12y ago
Let's hope that it makes its way through human trials. Even better, let's hope that their development platform generalizes. Lots of known nasties out there which we can dramatically reduce with vaccines.
- tim333 12y ago
  Yeah it's a clever technique - knocking out the gene for one protein and then producing that protein elsewhere.
  - JumpCrisscross 12y ago
    > knocking out the gene for one protein and then producing that protein elsewhere Why does this work?
    - k_sze 12y ago
      Probably because once the cultured virus is taken away from the host and put into the vaccine, it can no longer reproduce inside the recipient of the vaccine (unless the recipient happens to express the VP30 gene, which had to be engineering into the monkey kidney cells anyway). So virus in the vaccine can cause only minimal damage because it can't reproduce.
    - semi-extrinsic 12y ago
      If I understand correctly, the hard part safetywise is not making the vaccine, handling it and giving it to the monkeys. It's the fact that you then have to give the monkeys real Ebola to see if the vaccine worked. So the hard part is handling real Ebola and monkeys infected with it. What these guys have done is broken that real Ebola into two pieces, where one piece is only in the monkeys. So even in the worst case scenario that a monkey infects a human with "real" Ebola when they are testing the vaccine efficiency, the "real" Ebola is now unable to replicate itself in the human body. It's very clever. Edit: so I think the answer by k_sze is wrong, but I'm not sure. Is there an immunologist in the room?
      - maxerickson 12y ago
        The abstract makes it clear that the vaccine is the thing missing the protein: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.aaa4919.full http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.a... Previously, we showed that a whole EBOV vaccine based on a replication-defective EBOV (EBOVΔVP30) protects immunized mice and guinea pigs against lethal challenge with rodent-adapted EBOV. edit: to be clear, k_sze is not wrong, they tested the vaccine against active virus.
        semi-extrinsic 12y ago
        Ok, good that you clarified. I was wrong.
    - maxerickson 12y ago
      When the protein is present, the Ebola is able to reproduce, manufacturing viral particles that look just like any other Ebola. In a host cell that does not manufacture the protein, the virus is unable to reproduce (apparently the jargon for this is "replication-defective"). So the virus particles manufactured above can be injected with little risk of infection.
nickysielicki 12y ago
This is the same guy that caused a fluster when he made a super dangerous modified H5N1, to the point that the government asked him not to publish. Of course, he did do it eventually. Pretty much the definition of being a badass, he makes extremely dangerous biological weapons and cures deadly disease. That's my school! Good time to be a badger... Also a bad time I suppose, it's 5:00am and I'm still up? Homework? What?
- ptaipale 12y ago
  Being a "badass" is something I don't exactly look for when I try to think of who should develop substances that are injected to my blood circulation.
  - nkozyra 12y ago
    Yeah, I'm looking for a rock star full stack virologist.
    - TeMPOraL 12y ago
      I think you can pouch someone from the broctor culture.
    - dmd 12y ago
      So, you mean Pardis Sabeti [0], Ebola researcher and lead singer of Thousand Days [1] [2]. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardis_Sabeti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardis_Sabeti [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahibadi/sets/72157605798942179 https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahibadi/sets/72157605798942179 [2] http://www.thousanddays.com/ http://www.thousanddays.com/
      - IgorPartola 12y ago
        Well goddamn, you found one.
        dmd 12y ago
probablyfiction 12y ago
Do you hear that? It's the sound of a thousand conspiracy theories being launched.
kokey 12y ago
Reading about these tests on monkeys in a biosafety level 4 facility reminds me of The Andromeda Strain. I remember watching the movie for the first time a few years ago and saw how the strain killed a monkey. I was thinking to myself perhaps killing a monkey for a movie was acceptable back in 1971. It turns out they just made it pass out with CO2, under the supervision of the SPCA. It was also one of those strange movies where I could remember the story line but had no visual memory of it, until I remembered I read the book on a commute many years before.
maxerickson 12y ago
The report: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.aaa4919.full http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.a...
jetskindo 12y ago
Good news, however the human trial will take years. By the time it is complete many will have died already. In other words this is good news for the next outbreak
- IgorPartola 12y ago
  Are you volunteering to be a subject in an expedited trial?
  - tim333 12y ago
    If I was working in an area with Elboa and some risk of getting infected I'd be happy enough to try the vaccine. The risks of this vaccine seem minimal compared to the danger of the disease.
- sanoli 12y ago
  The safeguards and the thoroughness of the trials are there for a reason. The necessary evil of it is that it takes time to be thorough, it takes time to be safe.
- irremediable 12y ago
  Agreed, although I think this is a little disingenuous. Surely it's good news for the next outbreak, and every subsequent outbreak?
Xeoncross 12y ago
So wait, the delete one of the eight genes that virus uses to replicate itself, inject that into the monkey, and then give the monkey the vaccine and watch the monkey's body kill the Ebola? If the Ebola can't reproduce, how do we know that the vaccine had anything to do with the Ebola dying? It's not like it can live forever crippled and unable to reproduce.
- vishvananda 12y ago
  Generally they follow exposure to the vaccine with exposure to the actual virus and see if the monkeys become infected.
- maxerickson 12y ago
  They manufactured the vaccine virus by developing 2 things: a strain of Ebola that lacked the gene to express a certain protein and a cell line that did express that protein. They infect cells from that line with their defective strain of Ebola, and since the cells are providing the protein, it is able to reproduce. They isolate that vaccine virus from those cells, expose it to hydrogen peroxide, and then expose the monkeys to it. Lacking the protein, the virus is unable to reproduce. After that exposure, when the monkeys have had time to develop immunity, they are exposed to active Ebola virus. So the earlier exposure to the vaccine virus provides them with immunity against the active virus.
  - Xeoncross 12y ago
    Thank you, that explains the steps much better.
- Amezarak 12y ago
  > It's not like it can live forever crippled and unable to reproduce. (Disclaimer: I am a layman when it comes to biology.) Why not? Viruses don't have a metabolism or anything, shouldn't they live forever unless destroyed?

114 points by alexcasalboni 12y ago

Let's hope that it makes its way through human trials. Even better, let's hope that their development platform generalizes. Lots of known nasties out there which we can dramatically reduce with vaccines.

tim333 12y ago
Yeah it's a clever technique - knocking out the gene for one protein and then producing that protein elsewhere.
- JumpCrisscross 12y ago
  > knocking out the gene for one protein and then producing that protein elsewhere Why does this work?
  - k_sze 12y ago
    Probably because once the cultured virus is taken away from the host and put into the vaccine, it can no longer reproduce inside the recipient of the vaccine (unless the recipient happens to express the VP30 gene, which had to be engineering into the monkey kidney cells anyway). So virus in the vaccine can cause only minimal damage because it can't reproduce.
  - semi-extrinsic 12y ago
    If I understand correctly, the hard part safetywise is not making the vaccine, handling it and giving it to the monkeys. It's the fact that you then have to give the monkeys real Ebola to see if the vaccine worked. So the hard part is handling real Ebola and monkeys infected with it. What these guys have done is broken that real Ebola into two pieces, where one piece is only in the monkeys. So even in the worst case scenario that a monkey infects a human with "real" Ebola when they are testing the vaccine efficiency, the "real" Ebola is now unable to replicate itself in the human body. It's very clever. Edit: so I think the answer by k_sze is wrong, but I'm not sure. Is there an immunologist in the room?
    - maxerickson 12y ago
      The abstract makes it clear that the vaccine is the thing missing the protein: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.aaa4919.full http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.a... Previously, we showed that a whole EBOV vaccine based on a replication-defective EBOV (EBOVΔVP30) protects immunized mice and guinea pigs against lethal challenge with rodent-adapted EBOV. edit: to be clear, k_sze is not wrong, they tested the vaccine against active virus.
      - semi-extrinsic 12y ago
        Ok, good that you clarified. I was wrong.
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    When the protein is present, the Ebola is able to reproduce, manufacturing viral particles that look just like any other Ebola. In a host cell that does not manufacture the protein, the virus is unable to reproduce (apparently the jargon for this is "replication-defective"). So the virus particles manufactured above can be injected with little risk of infection.

nickysielicki 12y ago

This is the same guy that caused a fluster when he made a super dangerous modified H5N1, to the point that the government asked him not to publish. Of course, he did do it eventually. Pretty much the definition of being a badass, he makes extremely dangerous biological weapons and cures deadly disease. That's my school! Good time to be a badger... Also a bad time I suppose, it's 5:00am and I'm still up? Homework? What?

ptaipale 12y ago
Being a "badass" is something I don't exactly look for when I try to think of who should develop substances that are injected to my blood circulation.
- nkozyra 12y ago
  Yeah, I'm looking for a rock star full stack virologist.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    I think you can pouch someone from the broctor culture.
  - dmd 12y ago
    So, you mean Pardis Sabeti [0], Ebola researcher and lead singer of Thousand Days [1] [2]. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardis_Sabeti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardis_Sabeti [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahibadi/sets/72157605798942179 https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahibadi/sets/72157605798942179 [2] http://www.thousanddays.com/ http://www.thousanddays.com/
    - IgorPartola 12y ago
      Well goddamn, you found one.
      - dmd 12y ago

probablyfiction 12y ago

Do you hear that? It's the sound of a thousand conspiracy theories being launched.

kokey 12y ago

Reading about these tests on monkeys in a biosafety level 4 facility reminds me of The Andromeda Strain. I remember watching the movie for the first time a few years ago and saw how the strain killed a monkey. I was thinking to myself perhaps killing a monkey for a movie was acceptable back in 1971. It turns out they just made it pass out with CO2, under the supervision of the SPCA. It was also one of those strange movies where I could remember the story line but had no visual memory of it, until I remembered I read the book on a commute many years before.

maxerickson 12y ago

The report: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.aaa4919.full http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2015/03/25/science.a...

jetskindo 12y ago

Good news, however the human trial will take years. By the time it is complete many will have died already. In other words this is good news for the next outbreak

IgorPartola 12y ago
Are you volunteering to be a subject in an expedited trial?
- tim333 12y ago
  If I was working in an area with Elboa and some risk of getting infected I'd be happy enough to try the vaccine. The risks of this vaccine seem minimal compared to the danger of the disease.
sanoli 12y ago
The safeguards and the thoroughness of the trials are there for a reason. The necessary evil of it is that it takes time to be thorough, it takes time to be safe.
irremediable 12y ago
Agreed, although I think this is a little disingenuous. Surely it's good news for the next outbreak, and every subsequent outbreak?

Xeoncross 12y ago

So wait, the delete one of the eight genes that virus uses to replicate itself, inject that into the monkey, and then give the monkey the vaccine and watch the monkey's body kill the Ebola? If the Ebola can't reproduce, how do we know that the vaccine had anything to do with the Ebola dying? It's not like it can live forever crippled and unable to reproduce.

vishvananda 12y ago
Generally they follow exposure to the vaccine with exposure to the actual virus and see if the monkeys become infected.
maxerickson 12y ago
They manufactured the vaccine virus by developing 2 things: a strain of Ebola that lacked the gene to express a certain protein and a cell line that did express that protein. They infect cells from that line with their defective strain of Ebola, and since the cells are providing the protein, it is able to reproduce. They isolate that vaccine virus from those cells, expose it to hydrogen peroxide, and then expose the monkeys to it. Lacking the protein, the virus is unable to reproduce. After that exposure, when the monkeys have had time to develop immunity, they are exposed to active Ebola virus. So the earlier exposure to the vaccine virus provides them with immunity against the active virus.
- Xeoncross 12y ago
  Thank you, that explains the steps much better.
Amezarak 12y ago
> It's not like it can live forever crippled and unable to reproduce. (Disclaimer: I am a layman when it comes to biology.) Why not? Viruses don't have a metabolism or anything, shouldn't they live forever unless destroyed?