Two American aid workers infected
with Ebola have shown signs of
recovery after receiving a “cocktail”
of experimental drugs manufactured
by a Californian and a Toronto-based
biotech firm.
Nancy Writebol, 59, was wheeled
from an ambulance to an isolation
unit at Emory University Hospital in
Atlanta on Tuesday. Her colleague,
Dr Kent Brantly, 33, arrived two days
earlier in markedly better condition,
walking under his own power from
the ambulance to the isolation unit.
Both wore protective suits.
The drugs used to treat Writebol and
Brantly were developed by San
Diego-based Mapp
Biopharmaceutical and Canada’s
Defyrus and given to both in Liberia
before their return to the US.
Ebola, which spreads via the blood or
other bodily fluids of an infected
person, has a fatality rate of up to
90%, according to the World Health
Organisation (WHO). On Wednesday,
WHO said the death toll from the
latest, and largest, outbreak had
reached 932 with deaths reported in
Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra
Leone and that more than 1,600
people infected.
The Americans received the drugs
after Samaritan’s Purse, for which
Brantly was working, contacted the
officials with US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention who are in
Liberia to discuss various
experimental treatments. What is so
far unknown is whether they are
recovering on their own, as others
who have survived Ebola have done,
or as a result of the treatment.
“Every medicine has risks and
benefits,” CDC Director Tom Frieden
told the Associated Press. “Until we
do a study, we don’t know if it helps,
if it hurts, or if it doesn’t make any
difference.”
The treatment, which combines
Mapp’s drug, ZMapp and ZMAb from
Defyrus, is one of several currently
being developed to tackle Ebola. It
has not been approved by the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
and had previously only been tested
on monkeys. ZMapp is manufactured
in Nicotiana plants, the genus that
includes tobacco plants.
In a statement Mapp said very little
of the drug is available and they are
“cooperating with appropriate
government agencies to increase
production as quickly as possible”.
“Any decision to use an experimental
drug in a patient would be a decision
made by the treating physician
under the regulatory guidelines of
the FDA,” the company said in a
statement.
In August last year Dr Larry Zeitlin,
president of Mapp
Biopharmaceutical, and James Pettitt,
of the US Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases,
published a report on an
experimental Ebola treatment that
protected 100% of non-human
primates when given one hour after
Ebola exposure.
According to the report in Science
Translational Medicine 43% of
infected monkeys recovered after
receiving the treatment 104 to 120
hours after infection – when they had
developed measurable symptoms of
disease.
The treatment, dubbed MB-003, is a
“cocktail” of monoclonal antibodies,
which are designed to bind to and
inactivate the virus. Pettitt said the
antibodies recognized infected cells
and triggered the immune system to
kill them off. No side effects of the
antibodies were observed in the
surviving animals.
In March Mapp was one of 15
organisations awarded $28m by the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) to
establish a new centre for excellence
to find an antibody “cocktail” to fight
the Ebola virus. The project is be led
by Erica Ollmann Saphire, professor
at the Scripps Research Institute
(TSRI), one of the world’s largest not-
for-profit organizations focusing on
research in the biomedical sciences.
Mapp and Defyrus are working with
LeafBio of San Diego, the US
government and the Public Health
Agency of Canada on development of
its drug.
Family members for Writebol and
Brantly say their conditions have
improved. “A week ago we were
thinking about making funeral
arrangements for Nancy,” her
husband, David Writebol, said in a
statement read by SIM USA president
Bruce Johnson. “Now we have a real
reason to be hopeful.”
Brantly’s wife, Amber, said he is in
good spirits. “I have been able to see
Kent every day, and he continues to
improve,” she said in a statement.

source: www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/06/ebola-infected-americans-experimental-drug-recovery-atlanta