Adapting Ebola Virus May Thwart New Drugs…BioWeapon ;)
BusinessInsider.com
Jan. 21, 2015
Miami (AFP) – The deadly Ebola virus is changing, and new genetic mutations that have arisen in the past four decades could thwart the experimental drugs that some pharmaceutical companies are developing, researchers said Tuesday.
There is no drug on the market to treat Ebola, and no vaccine to prevent it, but clinical trials were accelerated last year after the worst outbreak in history began sweeping West Africa, killing more than eight thousand people so far and infecting more than 21,000.
Until recently, drug companies had been reluctant to invest much in Ebola treatments, seeing little cash return from treating a virus that tends to strike sporadically in Africa.
Even though some drugs are now being fast-tracked, they were developed well over a decade ago, based on strains of Ebola that were identified when the virus first emerged in the 1970s.
Some of the most promising drugs bind to and target a piece of the virus’s genetic sequence.
Since viruses naturally mutate over time, that could mean the drugs will not work as well as hoped, said the study in the journal mBio.
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