Authors: D Corti et al.
Summary:
Ebola virus disease in humans is highly lethal, with case fatality rates ranging from 25-90%. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine against the virus, underscoring the need for efficacious countermeasures. Here, we demonstrate that a human survivor of the 1995 Kikwit Ebola virus disease outbreak maintained circulating antibodies against the Ebola virus surface glycoprotein for more than a decade after infection. From this survivor we isolated monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that neutralize recent and previous outbreak variants of Ebola virus, and mediate antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity in vitro. Strikingly, monotherapy with mAb114 protected macaques when given as late as five days after challenge. Treatment with a single human mAb suggests a simplified therapeutic strategy for human Ebola infection may be possible.
Source:
Science; 2016.