US stockpiles of ebolavirus survivors

Emory University collects blood components for the treatment of future patients

At the moment, there is no reliable vaccine against Ebola. In the United States, 10 infected were registered, two died. But even that is scary enough for regulators to start resolving some technologies.

On Friday, it became known that Emory University will stock up on blood plasma from Ebola-surviving patients. Preserving previously prohibited methods of pathogenic inactivation based on the system from Cerus Corporation will help. Stocks of these fluids are necessary for the implementation of passive immunotherapy.

Ebolavirus causes fever, fever, headaches and muscle aches, dehydration, vomiting, and coughing. There are no specific treatment methods, intensive care is simply provided for the patient.

The blood of survivors of Ebola is valuable because it contains antibodies to fight the virus. They are used with some success for the treatment of patients; for this purpose, plasma is extracted from the blood of survivors and administered to the infected.
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This method is not too new. According to Peter Piot, an ebolavirus discoverer, at the time of the first outbreaks of the disease, the recovered blood serum remained almost the only hope. It was used in 1996, twenty years after the discovery of the virus. Then in the Congo, only one out of eight patients died.

Rick Sacra, Ashoka Mukpo and nurse Nina Fem have already received blood components from Kent Brantley, who had the virus. All three survived. WHO recommends that you try this method for countries that have infected. In addition, it is suggested that the resulting antibodies may be useful not only in combating the virus, but also to work as a disease prevention.

Cerus Corporation has developed an Intercept system that will be used in a study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the treatment of Ebola in West Africa. The heart of the anti-pathogenic molecule is amotosalen , a substance of the class of psoralens , organic compounds with three rings.

The need for such a system is due to the fact that the plasma of recovered can carry not only antibodies, but also other additional infections that are common in African countries in which outbreaks of the virus occur, for example, malaria. Intercept neutralizes all unnecessary impurities.

When amotosalen is added to blood plasma and is irradiated with ultraviolet light, it is activated and occupies a position in the structures of DNA and RNA, forming permanent cross-links between the two helices. Pathogens can no longer replicate.

For the US, this technique is new, and in Europe Intercept began to be used already eight years ago. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has slowed down work in this area. Apparently, there was no special demand for such systems, but last week the agency was finally given a go-ahead.

In October, Intercept was approved for use in the southern states, where, due to global warming and the increasing spread of disease spreaders - mosquitoes - the threat of chikungunya and dengue fever is increasing. Perhaps this was the turning point that forced the FDA to allow such Intercept systems in the rest of the territory.

Based on Wired , product site Intercept and Wikipedia .