The immune system helps Ebola virus

2003/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia

Ebola is a very deadly virus that breaks the blood vessels and causes huge internal bleeding in humans. 9 out of 10 people die. However, they still do not know why it has so much virulence. According to recent studies, some antibodies that occur when the virus is introduced into the body increase the virus's infectivity. As most antibodies know glycoproteins associated with the external membrane of the virus, but in this case they facilitate the introduction of the virus into the cell.

It was tried in the laboratory with genetically modified viruses that cannot cause the death of the host, that is, viruses that enter the cell but cannot reproduce. Thus, they have seen that the virus generates three types of antibodies, and only one of them would help the virus infect the cells. Although it is applied to the glycoprotein of the virus and as usual activates the immune system, by an unknown mechanism for the moment, the antibody facilitates the entry of the virus into the cells.

This hinders the work of people who work in the development of vaccines, since they generate antibodies instead of damaging the virus. Therefore, we will have to develop vaccines that only produce antibodies that resist Ebola.