Tekmira, a pharmaceutical research company, has announced that an experimental drug developed to treat Marburg fever - the simian version of Ebola - is effective in early tests. The new medicine even treated patients who were already experiencing symptoms of the disease.
Studying Marburg virus and treatments, including the one developed by Tekmira, could not only help our primate relatives, but could also shed light on possible treatments for Ebola. Some of these medicines may even offer hope for those already suffering from the disease, currently taking lives in western Africa.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever has already taken the lives of 1,200 people in Africa.
Tekmira is currently developing a version of their new drug which will provide relief to victims of the disease. Experiments carried out earlier this year resulted in some subject developing adverse reactions, including fevers. The study was halted, for the safety and health of the subjects.
A total of 21 monkeys were infected with Marburg. While 16 were treated with the experimental drug, five were left untreated, as a control group. The primates were started on treatments, beginning at different periods from initial infection. Seven of the simian subjects were already experiencing symptoms when the drug was first administered. All of the monkeys who received the new drug responded positively to treatment, while the entire control group sickened until researchers were forced to euthanize the animals.
"The Tekmira drug consists of so-called small interfering RNA (siRNA), the sister molecule of DNA. The siRNA binds to the viruses' genetic material and prevents them from proliferating in cells they have infected," Reuters reported.
Critics of the investigation draw attention to the small sample size, as well as the questionable safety record of the class of drugs which includes this new drug.
Like Ebola, the most virulent strains of Marburg can kill up to 90 percent of victims, and there are no known treatments or preventative medicines.
In response to the epidemic, agencies of the United States Government are providing biotech companies and drug developers with a large number of grants to develop treatments for the disease.
In 2013, a group of researchers combined treatments of Ebola antibodies and interferon, a substance employed by human immune systems, to successfully treat seven monkeys suffering from Marburg. This was the best advance against the drug until this new research was undertaken.
Rapid human safety testing will soon begin, in an effort to alleviate the growing epidemic in Africa.
Study of the Tekmira medicine and how it can help treat monkeys infected with Marburg was profiled in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
