{"id":69204,"date":"2014-11-27T12:33:17","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T12:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=69204"},"modified":"2014-11-27T12:33:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T12:33:35","slug":"ebola-vaccine-trial-promising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/11\/ebola-vaccine-trial-promising\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebola vaccine trial ‘promising’"},"content":{"rendered":"
The first human trial of an experimental vaccine against Ebola suggests that it is safe and may help the immune system to combat the virus.<\/p>\n
Twenty volunteers were immunised in the United States. Scientists at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) described the results as “promising”.<\/p>\n
The research is published in the\u00a0New England Journal of Medicine(NEJM).<\/p>\n
None of those immunised suffered major side-effects and all produced antibodies.<\/p>\n
Dr Anthony Fauci of the NIH told the BBC: “On safety and on the ability to produce an appropriate immune response we can call this trial an unqualified success, even though it was an early Phase One trial.”<\/p>\n
The volunteers were divided into two groups, receiving either a low or high dose. The antibody response was stronger among those receiving the higher dose.<\/p>\n
The investigators found that seven of the high dose and two of the lose dose volunteers produced T-cell immune responses, which may be important in protection against Ebola viruses.<\/p>\n
The vaccine uses a chimpanzee cold virus which has been genetically engineered to carry a non-infectious Ebola protein on its surface.<\/p>\n