Media Availability: Rapid and Durable Protection Against Ebola Virus With New Vaccine Regimens

Media Availability: Rapid and Durable Protection Against Ebola Virus With New Vaccine Regimens

Scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus budding from a cell (African green monkey kidney epithelial cell line).

NIH to Launch Human Safety Study of Ebola Vaccine Candidate
Credit: NIAID

One shot of an experimental vaccine made from two Ebola virus gene segments incorporated into a chimpanzee cold virus vector (called chimp adenovirus type 3 or ChAd3) protected all four macaque monkeys exposed to high levels of Ebola virus 5 weeks after inoculation, report National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their collaborators. The ability of the ChAd3 Ebola virus vaccine to elicit rapid protection in monkeys is notable as the world health community battles an ongoing Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa.

The research team, headed by Nancy J. Sullivan, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center, also demonstrated increased levels of durable protection using an additional vaccine. The experimental ChAd3 Ebola vaccine used in these non-human primate studies is the same one currently being tested in anearly-stage human clinical trial at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. Read more: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2014/Pages/EbolaProtection.aspx