Some outbreaks of the Ebola virus in Africa have been associated with persistent infection in patients who had survived past outbreaks, senior author of a recently published paper Xiankun "Kevin" Zeng said.
A EurekAlert! report specified that specifically, the 2021 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Guinea recurred from a "persistently infected survivor" of the last major outbreak at least five years ago.
Nonetheless, the persistent Ebola virus's exact hiding place and the fundamental pathology of subsequent recrudescent or recurrent disease in survivors, especially those who underwent standard-of-care monoclonal antibody treatments, were largely unknown.
Therefore, Zeng's team at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases used a nonhuman primate prototype that most closely sums up Ebola virus disease in humans to answer such questions.
Ebola Virus Persisting in Some Body Parts
In groundbreaking research, scientists explained how the Ebola virus, a disease that can persist in some parts of the body, can recur to cause
In a groundbreaking study published today, scientists describe how the Ebola virus, which can persist in certain areas of the body, can re-emerge to cause fatal disease-even long after treatment with monoclonal antibodies.
Zeng said their work is the first study to show the hiding place of brain Ebola virus persistence and the pathology that causes subsequent deadly recrudescent Ebola virus-associated disease in the "nonhuman primate model."
The senior author said they discovered that roughly 20 percent of monkeys that survived exposure to deadly Ebola virus infection, particularly in the brain ventricular system, in which cerebrospinal fluid has been produced, particularly in the brain ventricular system in which cerebrospinal fluid has been produced, spread, and contained, even when Ebola virus was cleared from all other organs.
'Recrudescence' Previously Reported Disease Survivors
Zhen said mainly, two monkeys that first recovered from Ebola virus-associated disease following treatment with antibody treatments had reemergence of severe clinical indications of Ebola virus infection and died succumbing to the illness.
In addition, severe inflammation and massive Ebola virus infection existed in the brain ventricular system. Essentially, no obvious pathology and viral infection were detected in other organs.
In their study published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers explained recrudescence has formerly been reported in human survivors of Ebola virus disease.
For instance, a British nurse had Ebola virus relapse in the brain, suffering from meningoencephalitis nine months from recovery from severe Ebola virus infection.
The nurse received therapeutic antibodies during the 2013 to 2016 outbreak in Western Africa, the biggest such outbreak reported and recorded.
Furthermore, a vaccinated individual treated with monoclonal antibody therapeutics for Ebola virus disease six months prior relapsed and died at the end of the outbreak from 2018 to 2020 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unfortunately, the case also resulted in a lot of subsequent human-to-human transmissions.
Possibility of a New Outbreak
In a similar report, Medical Xpress specified that during the last couple of years, the research team at USAMRIID has carried out systematic research of Ebola virus persistence using nonhuman primate survivors as a model.
The study showed that the virus, in spite of being cleared from all other organs, can hide and continue in particular areas of immune-privileged organs like the vitreous chamber of eyes, the seminiferous tubules of testes, and the brain's ventricular system reported in the research.
According to Jun Liu, Ph.D. from USAMRIID, who served as co-first author of the present paper with Joh Trefry, Ph.D., the persistent Ebola virus may reboot and cause a relapse of the disease in survivors, possibly leading to a new outbreak.
Related information about the Ebola virus is shown on Kurzgesagt's YouTube video below:
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