US stocks of plasma surviving ebolavirus

    Emory University collects blood components to treat future patients


    There is currently no reliable vaccine for Ebola. In the United States, 10 infected were registered, two died. But even this is scary enough for regulators to start allowing some technologies.

    On Friday, it became known that Emory University will stock up on the blood plasma of Ebola survivors. Previously forbidden methods of pathogenic inactivation based on a system from Cerus Corporation will help in preserving. Stocks of such fluids are needed for passive immunotherapy.

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

    The blood of Ebola survivors is valuable in that it contains antibodies to fight the virus. They are used with some success to treat patients; for this, plasma is isolated from the blood of survivors and administered to the infected.

    This method is not too new. As says the discoverer ebolavirusa Peter Piot, at the time of the first outbreaks of disease serum recovered remained almost the only hope. They also used it in 1996, twenty years after the discovery of the virus. Then in Congo only one patient out of eight died.

    Rick Sacra, Ashoka Mukpo and nurse Nina Fem have already received blood components from Kent Brantley, who carried the virus. All three survived. WHO recommends trying this method for countries that have infected people. In addition, assumptions are madethat the resulting antibodies can be useful not only in the fight against the virus, but also work as a disease prevention.

    Cerus Corporation has developed the Intercept system, which will be used in a study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for Ebola in West Africa. The heart of the antipathogenic molecule is amotosalen , a substance of the class of psoralen , an organic compound with three rings.

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

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

    For the United States, this technique is new, and in Europe Intercept began to be used eight years ago. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has slowed work in this area. Apparently, there was not much demand for such systems, but last week the agency finally gave the go-ahead.

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

    Based on materials from Wired , the Intercept product site and Wikipedia .

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