Combination therapy is effective in Marburg virus infection

The virus takes its name from the German city of Marburg, where it was discovered in 1967; Then local laboratory staff contracted the monkeys (they were green vegetables), imported from Uganda as test animals. The disease is not highly contagious, but tens of percent of them die. Injured. The virus attacks all major organs and tissues, including. Lungs, liver, spleen, and adrenal glands. It causes high fever (up to 40 degrees) and internal and external bleeding, manifested by bloody and secretions from the body: vomit, urine and stool.

A new study from Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) shows significant benefits of combining monoclonal antibody and antiviral remdesivir in treating advanced disease caused by Marburg virus.

Marburg is a highly pathogenic disease caused by a virus from the same family as the Ebola virus. In Africa, patients often see a doctor in a very serious condition. It was important to see if the combination of treatments would really work better for patients, said Tom Gisbert, professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UTMB University. “Our data indicated that this special combination allowed recovery when it was taken very late in the disease.”

a. Gisbert and Dr. Zachary A. Burnholt, the study’s co-authors, has developed treatments with monoclonal antibody (mAbs) against high-risk viruses such as Marburg and Ebola for several years. The treatments have been shown to be very effective in laboratory tests and in emergency situations, especially in the early stages of the disease.

In the current monkey study (the rhesus monkey), monoclonal antibody therapy was started six days after infection, at the critical stage of disease progression. The combination treatment with the antiviral remsfer showed a protection factor of 80%, indicating that it would be possible to treat advanced infections. (PAP)

Author: Pawe Wernicki

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