Mutations in Ebola Not Disrupting Drug Binding Sites—So Far

Abstract

The mechanisms of the experimental therapeutics used during the 2014–2015 West African Ebola epidemic were developed to target strains that caused the 1976 and 1995 outbreaks. However, some 600 mutations appear in circulating strains of Ebola that postdate those earlier strains, and 10 of those changes might affect the efficacy of these therapeutics, according to Gustavo F. Palacios of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., and his collaborators. Details appeared 20 January 2015 in mBio (doi:10.1128/mBio.02227–14).