Ebola outbreak: Tekmira working on life-saving Ebola drug
- 9 years ago
Canada’s Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. is trying to develop a gene-silencing drug to block the worst-ever Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Takmira’s therapy, TMK-Ebola, has been effective in animals, but it hasn’t yet been carried out on people due to safety concerns. As Reuters reported, in July, the FDA placed a clinical hold on the company's TKM-Ebola Phase 1 healthy volunteer study.
According to Reuters, TMK-Ebola was not used to treat two U.S. aid workers who were recently infected nor to "anyone else infected in the current outbreak.”
But despite the hold on the trial, the Canadian company hopes to produce as soon as possible the first treatment for a virus that has killed more than 700 people in West Africa since February.
The study by Tekmira started in 2010 when researchers injected a lethal dose of the deadly Zaire species of Ebola virus into Chinese rhesus macaques, Graphic News reported.
They then used a synthetic version of RNA called siRNA and a protein called Argonaute inside fat molecules and injected them into the macaques to target three Ebola genes which are responsible for the virus replication.
The molecules worked by binding to the RNA produced by the Ebola virus and blocking its ability to replicate by making disease-causing proteins.
“The siRNAs inhibited the replication of the virus and completely protected the monkeys against death from haemorrhagic fever”, Tom Geisbert, a microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston told National Geographic News.
According to Graphic News, after ten days from the beginning of the treatment the virus disappeared in all monkeys in which it had been injected.
Before using the drug on human patients, the FDA has asked Tekmira to provide additional data related to an inflammatory reaction seen when the drug was given at higher doses, the Canadian Press reported
In the meantime, one of the two workers infected, Nancy Writebol, is being transported back
Takmira’s therapy, TMK-Ebola, has been effective in animals, but it hasn’t yet been carried out on people due to safety concerns. As Reuters reported, in July, the FDA placed a clinical hold on the company's TKM-Ebola Phase 1 healthy volunteer study.
According to Reuters, TMK-Ebola was not used to treat two U.S. aid workers who were recently infected nor to "anyone else infected in the current outbreak.”
But despite the hold on the trial, the Canadian company hopes to produce as soon as possible the first treatment for a virus that has killed more than 700 people in West Africa since February.
The study by Tekmira started in 2010 when researchers injected a lethal dose of the deadly Zaire species of Ebola virus into Chinese rhesus macaques, Graphic News reported.
They then used a synthetic version of RNA called siRNA and a protein called Argonaute inside fat molecules and injected them into the macaques to target three Ebola genes which are responsible for the virus replication.
The molecules worked by binding to the RNA produced by the Ebola virus and blocking its ability to replicate by making disease-causing proteins.
“The siRNAs inhibited the replication of the virus and completely protected the monkeys against death from haemorrhagic fever”, Tom Geisbert, a microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston told National Geographic News.
According to Graphic News, after ten days from the beginning of the treatment the virus disappeared in all monkeys in which it had been injected.
Before using the drug on human patients, the FDA has asked Tekmira to provide additional data related to an inflammatory reaction seen when the drug was given at higher doses, the Canadian Press reported
In the meantime, one of the two workers infected, Nancy Writebol, is being transported back