Surupa Chakraborty, Amity University Kolkata
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved Inmazeb, a potent treatment involving a cocktail of three lab-made monoclonal antibodies (atoltivimab, maftivimab, and odesivimab-ebgn) to fight against Ebola, one of the world’s deadliest diseases known so far. Inmazeb targets the glycoprotein, which latches onto the cell surface receptors and fuses with the host cell membranes, allowing the virus to enter into the cell. The combination of three mAbs can bind with the glycoprotein and block the attachment and entry of the virus into the host cell.
Zaire ebolavirus is one of the five viruses that causes an often fatal hemorrhagic fever known as Ebola virus disease (EVD), associated with a mortality rate as high as 90%. Upon infection, the virus attacks the immune system, rapidly multiplies and begins damaging the blood vessels causing the trademark hemorrhagic rash. This is followed by widespread organ failure and death within 16 days. Since 1976, there have been a dozen major Ebola outbreaks with the recent one, being the deadliest. Several EVD therapeutics, including the Inmazeb, were evaluated in randomized clinical trials (the PALM trial) as options for preventing and treating EVD during the outbreak in 2018-2019. The trial data analysis revealed that 33.8% of the patients who were intravenously administered with Inmazeb, resulted in an extensive time of death (28 days) compared to 51% of the patients who received the investigational control.
However, common symptoms of Ebola virus infection like fever, chills, hypersensitivity reaction, tachycardia, bradycardia might also be observed while receiving the Infameb mAb treatment. Patients who will receive the treatment should avoid the consecutive administration of any live vaccine due to the treatment’s potential to inhibit the live vaccine virus replication and possibly reduce the vaccine’s efficiency. Saphire, who leads a research consortium focused on studying potent antibody treatments for Ebola, hopes that the recent FDA approval would remove all regulatory obstacles, thereby allowing the doctors and medical associations to get easy access of the drug from the US and deploy them in the affected regions.
Also read: Efficient and cost-effective Bacterial mRNA sequencing causing ribosomal RNA depletion
Source:
- FDA Approves First Treatment for Ebola Virus.
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-treatment-ebola-virus
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