Inhalable Ebola vaccine discovered

Who says an Ebola vaccine has to be injected?
Certainly not.
Researchers at the University of Texas Medical
Branch (UTMB), Galveston have discovered an
inhalable vaccine that can protect rhesus
macaque monkeys against severe illness and
death when they were exposed to the Ebola virus.
Rhesus Macaques are among the most
widespread primates after humans and are the
monkeys most widely used in biomedical
research.
Medics in full gear to avoid contracting the virus
Findings published in the Journal of Clinical
Investigation suggests that the linings of the
airways may be an important point of entry for
the Ebola virus into the body.
Alexander Bukreyev, a professor of virology at the
University said the study demonstrates successful
aerosol vaccination against a viral hemorrhagic
fever for the first time.
“A single-dose aerosol vaccine would enable both
prevention and containment of Ebola infections, in
a natural outbreak setting where health care
infrastructure is lacking or during bioterrorism and
biological warfare scenarios,” he added.
“A needle-free, inhalable vaccine against Ebola
presents certain advantages. Immunization will
not require trained medical personnel,” Michelle
Meyer, a postdoctoral fellow in the pathology
department at the UTMB further stated.
In the new study, Bukreyev and colleagues
administered the inhaled vaccine to six rhesus
macaque monkeys.
A month later, the team injected the monkeys
with a dose of Ebola virus that was 1,000 times
the level that would normally be deadly.
None of the monkeys died or developed severe
cases Ebola, although a few developed mild
depression.
The new vaccine is made from a mild, very
common respiratory virus, called human
parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3), that has been
engineered to include genes from the Ebola virus
that encode the proteins of the virus’s outer coat.
The researchers found that the engineered virus
infiltrated monkey’s respiratory tracts, and
replicated there, triggering the cells to produce
many copies of the Ebola virus’s coat.
The immune system, in turn, recognized that outer
coat as foreign, and activated a response.
The new vaccine would be an improvement over
other vaccines not only because it could be
delivered by people other than medical
professionals.
Researchers said the vaccine triggered two
different forms of immunity — a “local” immune
response, in the mucous membranes of the
respiratory tract, as well as a body-wide immune
system response, in form of immune cells
circulating throughout the body.
Most other Ebola vaccines only stimulate
systemic immunity, so the new vaccine could add
another layer of protection.
The National Institutes of Health is currently
starting a Phase I trial of the vaccine, in a small
number of people, to see if the drug is safe.
Further studies are needed to confirm that the
vaccine is both safe and effective, and may likely
take at least three years before the vaccine be
used in the field.
The 18-month-old west African Ebola epidemic
has sickened more than 27,000 and left more
than 15,000 dead, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone, according to the World Health
Organization.
Vaccines and treatments have been used in the
field, either in organised clinical trials or in certain
special situations.
But many of the vaccines are shots that must be
administered by people with at least some
medical training.
But in the parts of Africa hard-hit by the outbreak,
Ebola has decimated the health workforce
especially hard, leading to severe shortages in
doctors and nurses.