A groundbreaking study has revealed that a pill can effectively eliminate the Ebola virus in infected monkeys, raising hopes for a practical and affordable human treatment.
The antiviral drug, Obeldesivir, not only eradicated the virus from the monkeys’ blood but also triggered an immune response, allowing the animals to develop antibodies and avoid organ damage. The findings were published in Science Advances.
Researchers, led by virologist Thomas Geisbert from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, administered Obeldesivir, an oral version of the intravenous drug Remdesivir, to ten monkeys a day after exposure to the Ebola virus. The treatment lasted for ten days, while three control monkeys, who received no treatment, succumbed to the virus.
Obeldesivir protected 80% of the cynomolgus macaques and 100% of the rhesus macaques, which are biologically closer to humans. The drug functions as a polymerase inhibitor, blocking an enzyme crucial for viral replication.
High-Dose Exposure
Although the number of test subjects was limited, the study was statistically significant due to the extraordinarily high dose of the virus administered—approximately 30,000 times the lethal dose for humans. This approach minimized the need for additional control monkeys and reduced unnecessary animal deaths.
Geisbert, who has studied Ebola since the 1980s and discovered the Reston strain, highlighted Obeldesivir’s broad-spectrum protection, unlike existing antibody treatments that only target the Zaire strain of Ebola. He described this feature as a “huge advantage.”
Pharmaceutical company Gilead is currently advancing Obeldesivir to Phase 2 clinical trials for the Marburg virus, a close relative of Ebola. Geisbert emphasized the importance of funding from the US National Institutes of Health, which has been instrumental in developing treatments and vaccines for Ebola and other exotic pathogens.
“All these drugs and vaccines that were developed against Ebola and other exotic viruses—90% of the funding comes from the US government,” Geisbert noted.
Ebola, first identified in 1976 and believed to have originated from bats, spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids and causes severe bleeding and organ failure. The 2019 approval of a vaccine and intravenous antibody treatments improved outcomes, but these options are costly and require cold storage, limiting accessibility in affected regions.