U.S. Ebola Researchers Plead for Access to Virus Samples
Ten scientists from eight major research
institutions in the U.S. on Wednesday in New York said they couldn’t
obtain samples of Ebola, and this had complicated their efforts to
understand how the virus was mutating, to develop new drugs, vaccines
and diagnostics.
They said the problems reflect growing
caution by regulators and transport companies about handling Ebola as
well as the limited resources of West African countries which are
struggling to help thousands of infected citizens.
A report form the U.S. indicated that
Tulane University, one of the institutions, received samples this week,
and the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it had
reached an agreement to get live specimens.
One of the scientists, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said Ebola mutates as it spreads, while few
expected it to acquire the ability to transmit through air, for
instance.
He said as a result of this, scientists required a constant supply of fresh samples to track these changes.
He said the hold up was not likely to
delay the development of experimental treatments, but if the virus
undergoes significant changes that go undetected, the drugs and tests
might not work.
Charles Chiu,
Microbiologist and infectious disease expert at the University of
California, San Francisco, said he needed samples from Ebola patients to
develop a new genetic test that could detect the disease in infected
individuals before symptoms appear.
“No one really knows right now what has the virus mutated to or if it has mutated,” he said.
“Without that research, “we’re not going
to be able to determine in advance whether or not it has changed to a
form where it might evade diagnostic assays or might render current
vaccines or drugs ineffective,” he added.
Laurie Garrett, Senior
Fellow, Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York
Scientists, said Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone had been slow to
release samples as they fight to contain the worst Ebola outbreak on
record.
She said the issue was largely and
appropriately, about safe transport, especially in the wake of the
recent mishandling of pathogens such as anthrax at U.S. government
laboratories.
“All the companies working on vaccines,
diagnostics and treatments are complaining about lack of access to viral
samples of Ebola,” she said.
Erica-Ollmann Saphire
of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, directs
scientists working on Ebola treatments, such as the three-antibody
cocktail ZMapp, said she needed special cells from Ebola survivors but
had not been able to get any.
Also Dr James Crowe, Director of the
Vaccine Centre at Vanderbilt University, was collaborating with Mapp on
ZMapp, and has had problems as well.
Crowe said he may soon get some samples
from U.S. Ebola survivors through Emory University, after going to
great lengths to get them.
Another researcher said exporting the
samples from Sierra Leone required approval from an ethics committee,
the minister of health and the president.
He said on the U.S. side, importing samples of Ebola required a permit from the CDC and passage through U.S. customs.
“The researchers have switched shipping
companies after one refused to carry Ebola, missed a flight which did
not have room for cargo,’’ he said.
“He has to bring dry ice to Africa to
pack the samples, which were killed with a double shot of an
inactivating agent, plus a shot of ethanol for good measure,’’ he added.
He said they are trying to extract RNA
from the samples and ship them to collaborators at Harvard University
and the Broad Institute, which plan to sequence the genetic code of the
virus and track the mutations taking place.
Garry another expert, said he and
several dozen colleagues from Harvard and Sierra Leone found that Ebola
was mutating twice as fast in humans as in fruit bats which carried the
virus.
He aid their last sample was from June, and it was not clear what changes have occurred in the virus since then.
“You need to know how much of an adaptation the virus is making in people,” if you want to treat and diagnose it, he said.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner
said that the agency has struck agreements with the three affected
countries in West Africa and hopes to acquire live specimens in a matter
of weeks.
He said they would then share samples with other institutions.
“How much sharing will go on will depend
on how many specimens we receive and finalising details around getting
permission to share from the affected countries,” he said.
Thomas Geisbert, a microbiologist at the
University of Texas Medical Branch, said lack of access to African
samples has also caused a scramble for blood samples from the handful of
U.S. patients who have survived, including Dallas nurse Nina Pham who
treated Duncan,.
He said he has a 26 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to study experimental Ebola treatments.
Geisbert said worked with leading Ebola
drug developers Profectus BioSciences and Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp
and is collaborating with Crowe at Vanderbilt for a next-generation
antibody treatment for Mapp.
