Another Ebola breakthrough for Canadian scientists

Canadian-led researchers have made another possible breakthrough in the battle against one of the world’s most-feared infections, finding that a drug already used for other diseases may slash Ebola’s deadly toll.

No treatment currently exists for the virus, which tore through three African countries in 2014 and 2015, killing 11,000 people in its worstever outbreak. The mortality rate for those infected was a fearsome 60 per cent.

Interferon Beta-1a is used to treat chronic hepatitis B and C, and is sometimes administered to people with multiple sclerosis.

A team headed by Dr. Eleanor Fish of the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute first did lab experiments that suggested the drug was an effective weapon against Ebola. Then, in Guinea, they administered the drug to nine patients and compared the results to 21 similar, previously treated Ebola-sufferers who received the standard “supportive” care.

After 21 days, 67 per cent of the Interferontreated Ebola patients were still alive, compared to just 19 per cent of the others, according to a study just published in the journal PLOS One.

The researchers also concluded that the virus had been cleared more rapidly from the blood of patients receiving Interferon, and that symptoms like abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea and diarrhea resolved sooner.

They caution the results are not definitive. The trial was small and had only one branch — for patients receiving Interferon — with the comparison subjects selected after the fact, rather than being randomly enrolled in the study.

But the findings are promising enough to warrant further investigation, the paper says, especially since nothing else exists for treating patients. Interferons are a family of naturally occurring proteins, produced in response to viral attack. In drug form and with certain diseases, they curb infection by preventing the virus from entering target cells and blocking different stages of viral replication. Because they are already in use, researchers know that they have a favourable safety profile.

Though the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia was officially declared over in January 2016, isolated cases have emerged since and the threat of another epidemic looms.

Among the most promising developments in the war against the disease is another Canadian-flavoured innovation. An Ebola vaccine developed by the national microbiology lab in Winnipeg was shown effective in a large-scale clinical trial reported in December.

AFTER 21 DAYS, 67% OF THE INTERFERONTREATED EBOLA PATIENTS WERE STILL ALIVE.