Idea for Ebola Vaccine

[Ian A. York]

In article <3v40i0$o2b at grape.epix.net> Dave Peters <dpeters> writes:
>I've been wondering....
>Could the Reston form of Ebola somehow be the key to a vaccine for the 
>deadly Ebola Zaire virus? Edward Jenner used the cowpox virus to make a 
>vaccine for the similar smallpox virus. Could the Reston form of Ebola 
>that does not affect humans somehow be used to vaccinate people against 
>Ebola Zaire? Please post your comments.

It's not a completely wild idea, but it's unlikely to work.  We had a 
disucssion about this some time ago.  To summarize that argument, there 
is no guarantee that it will work, and because of the problems in finding 
a valid experimental system, it's not testable yet.  I also remember 
reading somewhere (sorry, my mind is melting in the heat and I can't 
remember where) that there is some suggestion that Ebola (like Dengue) 
has antibody-mediated enhancement of infection and so Reston accination 
might actually make things worse.  Again, without a good experimental 
system thsi is all guesswork; and the risks of a bad guess are terrible.

Ian

-- 
Ian York   (york at mbcrr.harvard.edu)
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston MA 02115
Phone (617)-632-3921     Fax  (617)-632-2627