A study by the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, UK, showed that Ebola virus vaccines use virus-like particles instead of live viruses to trigger an immune response, which shows promise in laboratory chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees and gorillas have recently been threatened by the Ebola virus outbreak, killing nearly a third of the world's gorillas, and are currently classified as endangered species. Half of the deaths of apes are caused by human respiratory viruses. These apes are accustomed to contacting humans for human scientific research and tourism activities. To assess whether vaccination is safe for wild apes, Peter D. Walsh and others tested the vaccine on chimpanzees in captivity and tested whether they contained virus-like particles instead of live viruses.
After testing, the author vaccinated 6 chimpanzees with two different vaccine preparations containing fragments of the Ebola virus coat protein. The vaccinated chimpanzees maintain normal weight, blood chemistry and hematology, and have no symptoms of Ebola virus infection. In addition, these chimpanzees showed a strong immune response similar to that shown by monkeys tested for Ebola virus infection. The researchers found that the chimpanzees were not infected with the Ebola virus in their study, but according to the vaccine prescription, after the antibodies from the chimpanzees were isolated and transferred to the mice infected with the Ebola virus, they were different.
"The survival rate of mice increased from 0 to 30% or 60%. According to the authors, these results indicate that non-infectious virus-like particles may provide a safe and effective vaccination method for wild chimpanzees.