Scientists modify Ebola virus, hope to speed drug development

AFP, January, 2008

CHICAGO (AFP) — US researchers have devised a way to genetically disarm the deadly Ebola virus in a development that could speed research into a vaccine against the bug or drugs to treat people who have been infected with it, a study released Monday said.

The investigators discovered that by removing a single gene from the virus, they can prevent it from replicating or multiplying, effectively neutralizing the virus and making it much safer to study.

The virus has eight genes. One of those, VP30, makes a protein that enables it to replicate in host cells. Without VP30, the virus cannot grow.

"The altered virus does not grow in any normal cells," said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

The Ebola virus first emerged in 1976, with outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan. Subsequent, sporadic outbreaks have occurred in Congo, ...