Viral Drug Research Articles

Enhanced fitness of hepatitis C virus increases resistance to direct-acting antivirals

Drug resistance mutations of hepatitis C virus (HCV) negatively impact viral replicative fitness. RNA viruses are known to change their replication behaviour when subjected to suboptimal selection pressure. Here, we assess whether mutation supply in HCV is sufficiently large to allow the selection of its variants during dual or triple direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment associated with augmented virus fitness or impairment. We engineered randomly mutagenized full-genome libraries to create a highly diverse population of replication-competent HCV variants in cell culture. These variants exhibited escape when treated with NS5A/NS5B inhibitors (daclatasvir/sofosbuvir), and relapse on treatment with a combination of NS3/NS5A/NS5B inhibitors (simeprevir or paritaprevir/daclatasvir/sofosbuvir). Analysis of the relationship between virus fitness and drug resistance of JFH1-derived NS5A-5B variants showed a significant positive correlation (P=0.003). At the earliest time points, intracellular RNA levels remain unchanged in both the subgenomic replicon and infection assays, whereas extracellular RNA levels increased upto ten-fold compared to wild-type JFH1. Beneficial substitutions hyperstimulated phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate during DAA treatment, and showed decreased dependence on cyclophilins during cyclosporine A treatment, indicating an interplay of virus-host molecular mechanisms in beneficial substitution selection that may necessitate infectious virus production. This comprehensive study demonstrates a possible role for HCV fitness of overcoming drug-mediated selection pressure.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel 1, 3, 4-oxadiazole derivatives as potent neuraminidase inhibitors

Neuraminidase (NA) is an important target in the development of anti-influenza virus drugs. Compounds containing 1,3, 4-oxadiazole heterocycles have good biological activity and have been proved to have wide applications in antibacterial and antiviral drugs. In this paper, a series of novel 1, 3, 4-oxadiazole neuraminidase inhibitors (6a-6l) were designed and synthesized and their inhibitory activities of NA was tested in vitro. The results displayed that compound 6d exerts the best inhibitory activity (IC50 = 0.027 µM), which was obviously lower than that of oseltamivir carboxylate (OSC) (IC50 = 0.082 µM). Molecular docking analysis showed that the 1, 3, 4-oxadiazole heterocycle plays crucial part in compound 6d, and it can interact with the key arginine triad (Arg118, Arg292 and Arg 371) at the NA S1 site. The good efficacy of 6d may also be attributed to the extension of the substituted aniline ring to the 150-cavitiy. The theoretical and experimental results may provide reference for development of new anti-influenza drugs.

Prevalence and Correlates of Viral Load Suppression and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Drug Resistance Among Children and Adolescents in South Rift Valley and Kisumu, Kenya.

Children and adolescents living with HIV (CALHIV) face unique challenges, including poorer treatment outcomes, risk for drug-resistance mutations (HIVDRMs), and limited drug formulations. We estimated viral suppression (VS) prevalence and evaluated predictors of VS and HIVDRMs in Kenya. From 2018-2020, CALHIV 1-19 years on antiretroviral therapy (ART) >6 months were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Participants underwent viral load (VL) testing; those with VL ≥1000 copies/mL had HIVDRM testing. Sociodemographic questionnaires and medical record abstraction were completed. VS prevalence (VL <1000 copies/mL) was estimated; robust Poisson regression models were used to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% CIs for associations between potential predictors of VS. Nine hundred and sixty-nine participants were enrolled. VS prevalence was .80 (95% CI: .78-.83). Being on ART >24 months (adjusted PR [aPR]: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.06-1.41), an integrase strand transfer inhibitor-containing regimen (1.13; 1.02-1.26), and attending a level 3 health facility (1.23; 1.11-1.36) were associated with VS. Missing ≥3 doses of ART in the past month (aPR: .73; 95% CI: .58-.92), having a viremic mother with HIV (.72; .53-.98), and having 3-7 (.90; .83-.97), 8-13 (.89; .82-.97), or ≥14 (.84; .77-.92) compared with <2 adherence counseling referrals were inversely associated with VS. A high proportion (n = 119, 81.5%) of unsuppressed participants had evidence of any major HIVDRM. HIV treatment programs should target interventions for pediatric patients at risk for treatment failure-namely, those with a caregiver with failed VS and those struggling with adherence.

Management of Genital Herpes Infection through Pregnancy

Background: Genital herpes is a lethal infection prevalent in fertility age women and can lead into mortality and morbidity of neonates on transmission. Objective: To analyze the management techniques for genital herpes infection during gestation. Study Design: Retrospective study Place and Duration of Study: Department of Obstetrics &amp; Gynaecology, Saadan Hospital Allaho Chowk Johar Town, Lahore from 10-01-2020 to 09-07-2020. Methodology: Fifty females presenting genital herpes clinical symptoms were completely analyzed through symptoms and laboratory analysis and managed for their genital herpes through anti- viral drugs. Results: The mean age was 28.9±3.2 years. Thirty-two females were having genital herpes at their third trimester. The anti-viral drugs reduced genital herpes in 90% cases with 1.2% transmission rate in caesarean delivery while 7% transmission risk in vaginal delivery. Conclusion: Genital herpes can be managed by using antiviral medications and c sections in majority of the cases. Keywords: Genital herpes, Caesarean, Transmission

Synthesis and antiviral activity of formycin derivatives with anti-influenza virus activity

In a screening using our unique natural product library, the C-nucleoside antibiotic formycin A, which exerts strong anti-influenza virus activity, was rediscovered. Aiming to develop a new type of anti-influenza virus drug, we synthesized new derivatives of formycin and evaluated its anti-influenza virus activity. Structural modifications were focused on the base moiety and sugar portion, respectively, and >40 novel formycin derivatives were synthesized. Modification of the C-7 position of the pyrazolopyrimidine ring strongly contributed to improve the activity. In particular, excellent anti-influenza virus activity was observed in the NHMe (10), SMe (12), and SeMe (15) derivatives, in which heteroatoms were introduced. In addition, in the modification of the sugar moiety, the presence of a hydroxyl group and its stereochemistry greatly affected both the expression and intensity of the activity. Furthermore, the evaluation results of the 7-SEt derivative (29) and the 2′-modified derivative (59) suggested that structural modifications may reduce cytotoxicity.

The Determinants of Behavior of HIV Testing in Pregnant Mothers

HIV infection in Indonesia is one of the health problems and infectious diseases that can affect maternal and child mortality. More than 90% of HIV-infected infants are infected by HIV-positive mothers. Transmission can occur during pregnancy, during delivery and during breastfeeding. Early detection of HIV is important so that antiretroviral virus (ARV) drug therapy is carried out more quickly to reduce the rate of HIV transmission from mother to baby. The research, which was conducted at the Balongan Subdistrict Health Center, Indramayu Regency, was conducted to determine the determinants associated with HIV testing behavior during pregnancy. This type of research is quantitative with a cross-sectional study design using the total population. The results of the univariate analysis showed that 71.1% of mothers did not take an HIV test during pregnancy. and education about HIV/AIDS, because the husband is the closest person to the mother so that the husband makes a big contribution to providing support to the mother

Sublethal enteroviral infection exacerbates disease progression in an ALS mouse model

BackgroundAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of the motor neuron system associated with both genetic and environmental risk factors. Infection with enteroviruses, including poliovirus and coxsackievirus, such as coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), has been proposed as a possible causal/risk factor for ALS due to the evidence that enteroviruses can target motor neurons and establish a persistent infection in the central nervous system (CNS), and recent findings that enteroviral infection-induced molecular and pathological phenotypes closely resemble ALS. However, a causal relationship has not yet been affirmed.MethodsWild-type C57BL/6J and G85R mutant superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1G85R) ALS mice were intracerebroventricularly infected with a sublethal dose of CVB3 or sham-infected. For a subset of mice, ribavirin (a broad-spectrum anti-RNA viral drug) was given subcutaneously during the acute or chronic stage of infection. Following viral infection, general activity and survival were monitored daily for up to week 60. Starting at week 20 post-infection (PI), motor functions were measured weekly. Mouse brains and/or spinal cords were harvested at day 10, week 20 and week 60 PI for histopathological evaluation of neurotoxicity, immunohistochemical staining of viral protein, neuroinflammatory/immune and ALS pathology markers, and NanoString and RT-qPCR analysis of inflammatory gene expression.ResultsWe found that sublethal infection (mimicking chronic infection) of SOD1G85R ALS mice with CVB3 resulted in early onset and progressive motor dysfunction, and shortened lifespan, while similar viral infection in C57BL/6J, the background strain of SOD1G85R mice, did not significantly affect motor function and mortality as compared to mock infection within the timeframe of the current study (60 weeks PI). Furthermore, we showed that CVB3 infection led to a significant increase in proinflammatory gene expression and immune cell infiltration and induced ALS-related pathologies (i.e., TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) pathology and neuronal damage) in the CNS of both SOD1G85R and C57BL/6J mice. Finally, we discovered that early (day 1) but not late (day 15) administration of ribavirin could rescue ALS-like neuropathology and symptoms induced by CVB3 infection.ConclusionsOur study identifies a new risk factor that contributes to early onset and accelerated progression of ALS and offers opportunities for the development of novel targeted therapies.

Risk Factors Associated With Quality of Life in Patients With Hepatitis B Virus Related Cirrhosis.

Aim: To evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) related cirrhosis patients and analyzed specific differences in all dimensions of HRQoL.Methods: A total of 349 patients met selection criteria were enrolled. The 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey was adopted.Results: Results showed that the physiological HRQoL of the cirrhotic group was significantly lower than that of the non-cirrhotic group (P = 0.003), the psychological HRQoL was also lower (P = 0.006). HRQoL was significantly negatively correlated with liver stiffness (P = 0.001). We further evaluated the risk factors associated with poor HRQoL in HBV-related cirrhosis patients. Results showed that positive HBV DNA viral load (OR = 6.296, P = 0.041) and HCC family history (OR = 36.211, P = 0.001) were independent factors associated with HRQoL in HBV-related cirrhosis. For better risk stratification of patients, multivariable analyses were conducted to explore the independent factors that affected specific physiological and psychological HRQoL. In specific physiological HRQoL, results show that marital status (OR = 9.971, P = 0.034), positive HBV DNA viral load (OR = 6.202, P = 0.042) and antiviral drugs (OR = 0.45, P = 0.031) were independent factors associated with physiological HRQoL in cirrhosis patients. In psychological HRQoL, only HCC family history was independent risk factors associated with psychological HRQoL (OR = 42.684, P = 0.002).Conclusion: We found that the impaired HRQoL dimensions of HBV related cirrhosis patients differ between the various subpopulations. According to our results, risk stratification, medical decision making and personalizing interventions could be made.

Association Between the Use of Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors and Drug-Induced Acute Kidney Injury: Analysis of 2 Databases.

The association between the use of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors and the occurrence of drug-induced kidney injury has not been evaluated. This study assessed whether the use of SGLT-2 inhibitors decreases the risk of drug-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) using the US Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System and the Medical Data Vision database. The occurrence of AKI in SGLT-2 inhibitor users and dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor users was compared using both databases. In the US Food and Drug Administration's Adverse Event Reporting System analysis, disproportionality for AKI was observed between DPP-4 inhibitor users and SGLT-2 inhibitor users administered nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (reporting odds ratio, 0.65; 95%CI, 0.48-0.88; P < .01) and thiazide diuretics (reporting odds ratio, 0.78; 95%CI, 0.67-0.90; P < .01). In Medical Data Vision analysis, SGLT-2 inhibitor users administered nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (odds ratio [OR], 0.46; 95%CI, 0.41-0.53; P < .01), anti-herpes simplex virus drugs (OR, 0.20; 95%CI, 0.07-0.53; P < .01), thiazide diuretics (OR, 0.50; 95%CI, 0.36-0.71, P < .01), and loop diuretics (OR, 0.71; 95%CI, 0.62-0.83; P < .01) had a lower incidence of AKI compared with DPP-4 inhibitor users receiving the same drugs. No differences were observed in the risk of AKI between SGLT-2 and DPP-4 inhibitor users administered vancomycin and cisplatin in both databases. The use of SGLT-2 inhibitors might reduce the risk of drug-induced AKI caused by some drugs.

Preparation of Recombinant PA Endonuclease Domain Protein of Influenza A Virus and Its Application for Glycobiology Research.

The endonuclease activity of influenza A virus RNA polymerase allows the digestion of host mRNA. The PA endonuclease domain could be a target of anti-influenza A virus drugs such as glycoconjugates. To test this activity, purified viral PA endonuclease domain protein is necessary. Here, we describe a method for the expression and purification of recombinant influenza A virus PA endonuclease domain protein, and a PA endonuclease assay to test glycoconjugates for potential inhibitory activity. Using influenza A virus PA cDNA as a template, DNA from the open reading frame of the PA endonuclease domain protein was amplified with PCR and cloned into an expression vector. Six His-tagged PA endonuclease domain proteins were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified with Ni2+-agarose resin and imidazole using an ion-exchange column. Using the recombinant PA endonuclease domain protein, an endonuclease assay was performed.

Importance of electromyography in children

Electromyography is a method of recording electrical muscle activity during reflex or voluntary contractions. It offers information about neuromuscular physiology, being use­ful in highlighting afflicted structures in various neu­ro­lo­gi­cal diseases, and especially in the diagnosis of muscle and neuromuscular diseases. In children, the importance of using cutaneous electromyography is given by the fact that it allows the diagnosis of pro­gres­sive muscular dystrophies (Duchenne, the benign Becker-Kiener form), of congenital myopathies, as well as myo­si­tis of various causes (viral infections, inflammatory di­seases, drugs or intense physical exercise).

Evaluation of the HIV drug resistance surveillance system in Mozambique, 2017-2018.

In the past ten years, the prevalence of primary Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) drug resistance has ranged from zero to 25%, with higher and increasing rates in countries with access to antiretroviral therapy (ART), a specific case in Mozambique. World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that countries implement and routinely evaluate representative HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) research to monitor the emergency and transmission of HIV drug resistance mutations. This study aimed to describe the functioning of the system and also to identify gaps in the sensitivity, representativeness and quality of the data using the WHO methodology for Pre-Treatment and Acquired Approaches. We conducted a descriptive evaluation of the information system for surveillance of HIVDR in Mozambique in 2017-2018, based on updated guidelines for evaluating of public health surveillance systems from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The evaluation was conducted in all provinces using secondary data extracted from a cross-sectional survey database on HIVDR, with HIV positive cases at the beginning of ART aged ≥15 years. The system was described through informal conversations with HIVDR stakeholders and the simplicity, data quality and representativeness attributes were evaluated. With 322 positive cases at the beginning of ART (mean age=32.5 years, SD±11.1), about 63.0% (203/322) cases were women and 37.6% (121/322) men. The system was implemented in 25 health facilities distributed across all 11 Mozambican provinces and was considered representative. The system used two data collection instruments, the ART book and the form accompanying samples sent to the reference laboratory. The ART form, with 27 variables, was sent offline at two levels (health facility and National Institute of Health (NHI)), accompanied by dried blood spot samples for viral load testing and genotyping in the NHI virology laboratory, and was considered simple according to the standardized criteria. The system´s data quality was considered regular at 79.9%, with about 59.8% (1156/1932) of variable fields completed and 100% (1932/1932) consistency. The system used a single national laboratory to measure the prevalence of resistance to HIV drugs and was considered simple, with regular quality and representative data. We recommended public health efforts such as conducting genotyping tests be expanded to the provincial level, and periodic monitoring of system´s data collection procedures using forms.

Autophagy-Related Activation of Hepatic Stellate Cells Reduces Cellular miR-29a by Promoting Its Vesicular Secretion.

Background & AimsLiver fibrosis arises from long-term chronic liver injury, accompanied by an accelerated wound healing response with interstitial accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM). Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSC) are the main source for ECM production. MicroRNA29a (miR-29a) is a crucial antifibrotic miRNA that is repressed during fibrosis, resulting in up-regulation of collagen synthesis.MethodsIntracellular and extracellular miRNA levels of primary and immortalized myofibroblastic HSC in response to profibrogenic stimulation by transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) or platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) or upon inhibition of vesicular transport and autophagy processes were determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Autophagy flux was studied by electron microscopy, flow cytometry, immunoblotting, and immunocytochemistry. Hepatic and serum miR-29a levels were quantified by using both liver tissue and serum samples from a cohort of chronic hepatitis C virus patients and a murine CCl4 induced liver fibrosis model.ResultsIn our study, we show that TGFβ and PDGF-BB resulted in decrease of intracellular miR-29a and a pronounced increase of vesicular miR-29a release into the supernatant. Strikingly, miR-29a vesicular release was accompanied by enhanced autophagic activity and up-regulation of the autophagy marker protein LC3. Moreover, autophagy inhibition strongly prevented miR-29a secretion and repressed its targets’ expression such as Col1A1. Consistently, hepatic miR-29a loss and increased LC3 expression in myofibroblastic HSC were associated with increased serum miR-29a levels in CCl4-treated murine liver fibrosis and specimens of hepatitis C virus patients with chronic liver disease.ConclusionsWe provide evidence that activation-associated autophagy in HSC induces release of miR-29a, whereas inhibition of autophagy represses fibrogenic gene expression in part through attenuated miR-29a secretion.

新型コロナウイルス感染症（COVID–19）に伴う難治性大量下痢症の1例(A case of refractory massive diarrhea in a patient with COVID–19)

ABSTRACTThe new coronavirus disease (COVID–19) causes gastrointestinal symptoms as well as respiratory symptoms. We report a case of massive refractory diarrhea from the perspective of gut microbiota. A 60–year–old man was transferred with dyspnea. He was diagnosed as having COVID–19 and was intubated on mechanical ventilation with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. He was administered anti–viral drug therapy and antibiotics. He suffered from diarrhea from day 12 and produced a maximum of about 6,384mL/day of watery diarrhea on day 21. He required massive transfusion and catecholamines for circulatory support. Adsorbents, pectin–containing oligomeric formulas and synbiotics were administered, which decreased the amounts of diarrhea. After day 30, the amount of diarrhea decreased to less than 1,000mL/day. Fecal metagenomic analysis showed the proportions of Enterococcus and Staphylococcus in the phylum Firmicutes were the most dominate at the genus level. The proportion of Bacteroidetes was less than 1%, and the gut microbiota had dramatically changed. Thereafter, his diarrhea decreased to occasional instances, and he was transferred to another ward on day 104. Therapy for intestinal complications might be important in treating COVID–19. Intestinal therapy such as adsorbents might be effective in patients with massive diarrhea.

Bioinformatics-Based Approaches to Study Virus-Host Interactions During SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

As the knowledge of biomolecules is increasing from the last decades, it is helping the researchers to understand the unsolved issues regarding virology. Recent technologies in high-throughput sequencing are providing the swift generation of SARS-CoV-2 genomic data with the basic inside of viral infection. Owing to various virus-host protein interactions, high-throughput technologies are unable to provide complete details of viral pathogenesis. Identifying the virus-host protein interactions using bioinformatics approaches can assist in understanding the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection and pathogenesis. In this chapter, recent integrative bioinformatics approaches are discussed to help the virologists and computational biologists in the identification of structurally similar proteins of human and SARS-CoV-2 virus, and to predict the potential of virus-host interactions. Considering experimental and time limitations for effective viral drug development, computational aided drug design (CADD) can reduce the gap between drug prediction and development. More research with respect to evolutionary solutions could be helpful to make a new pipeline for virus-host protein-protein interactions and provide more understanding to disclose the cases of host switch, and also expand the virulence of the pathogen and host range in developing viral infections.

Quadratic Optimization-Based Nonlinear Control for Protein Conformation Prediction

Predicting the final folded structure of protein molecules and simulating their folding pathways is of crucial importance for designing viral drugs and studying diseases such as Alzheimer's at the molecular level. To this end, this letter investigates the problem of protein conformation prediction under the constraint of avoiding high-entropy-loss routes during folding. Using the well-established kinetostatic compliance (KCM)-based nonlinear dynamics of a protein molecule, this letter formulates the protein conformation prediction as a pointwise optimal control synthesis problem cast as a quadratic program (QP). It is shown that the KCM torques in the protein folding literature can be utilized for defining a reference vector field for the QP-based control generation problem. The resulting kinetostatic control torque inputs will be close to the KCM-based reference vector field and guaranteed to be constrained by a predetermined bound; hence, high-entropy-loss routes during folding are avoided while the energy of the molecule is decreased.

A Novel Approach to Virus Drug Discovery Using an Evolutionarily Conserved Core

A Novel Approach to Virus Drug Discovery Using an Evolutionarily Conserved Core

Molecular docking and pharmacokinetics studies of Curcuma longa (Curcumin) potency against Ebola virus

Abstract The Ebola virus disease causing hemorrhagic fever in human, has been known for nearly about 40 years, with the most recent outbreak being in West Africa creating humanitarian crisis, where over 11,308 deaths were recorded as reported in 30th March, 2016 (World Health Organization). Till now, Ebola virus drugs have been far from achieving regulatory FDA approval, and coupled with toxicity of these drugs, it is become imperative to appraise the available trail drugs, as well as looking into alternative natural resources of tackling menace. Therefore, in silico methods were used to assess the potency of the bioactive phytochemical, Curcumin from Turmeric and results compared with those obtained for some selected trial drugs in use for the treatment of Ebola virus. This study is focused on molecular docking of Curcumin and eight commercially available drugs (Amodiaquine, Apilimod, Azithromycin, Bepridil, Pyronaridine, Remedesivir and Tilorone) against Ebola transcription activator VP30 proteins (PDB: 2I8B, 4Z9P and 5T3T) and their ADMET profiling. The results showed that binding affinity (ΔG kJ/mol) ranged from -5.8 (Tilorone) to -7.3 (Remdesivir) for 218B, -6.4 (Tilorone) to -8.2 (Pyronaridine, Remedesivir) and -5.8 (Bepridil) to -7.4 (Pyronaridine). Curcumin could be more desirable as inhibitor for than Tilorone, Dronedarone and Bepridil in the treatment of Ebola virus; the ADMET profile revealed that Curcumin presents attractive pharmacokinetic properties than the trial drugs.

Patterns of human immunodeficiency virus drug resistance mutations in people living with human immunodeficiency virus in India: A scoping review.

The human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic still exists as a major global public health burden, especially in the middle- and low-income countries. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) remains a sole option to reduce the mortality and morbidity associated with this disease as no approved vaccine candidates are available. About 67% of the people living with HIV (PLHIV) have received the ART in 2019 worldwide. As a consequence of increased ART regimes, the prevalence of drug resistance mutations (DRM) also has been escalating and it would become a significant barrier in achieving the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS goal of eliminating HIV by 2030. So far, nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI), and protease inhibitor-(PI) associated DRM have been reported across the globe with a considerable escalation in the annual prevalence rate of pretreatment NNRTI DRM. Conversely, NRTI-associated DRM is still under 5%, with a few scattered reports of significant increase from few countries such as southern and eastern Africa. Likewise, in India, the propositions of NRTI and NNRTI-associated DRM have increased since the commencement of the nationwide ART program in 2004. In agreement to the global trend, M1841/V, a type of NNRTI, remains as a dominant DRM among PLHIV. In this review, we tried to collate various mechanisms of DRM in PLHIV. In addition, patterns of HIV DRM in India and their future challenges on drug-related mutations have been discussed.

Menace of Ebola Virus Disease: A Review

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) a deadly disease that affect human and apes like gorilla, chimpanzee antelopes and so on. The causative virus is found mostly in Africa. It had been uncovered first in mid 1970s on the brink of the River of Ebola village. Since from the primary inception of the strange disease in Democratic Republic of Congo, there has been a periodic outbreak of the disease in some African countries, affecting many people within the region. A systematic review was conducted using Google search Engine, Cochrane database systemic review (CDSR), Centre for Disease Control and prevention and World Health Organization EVD report Databases. The 2014-2016 Ebola outbreaks in West Africa were the most important and most complex, which began in Guinea and spread to Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Before the disease is contained, it kills about 11,000 people and quite 28,000 people being affected from it first mid 1970s detection to late 2016. The virus is transmitted from fruit bat in touch of with other animals and passes on the infection to humans through handling infected, dead or sick animals found within the forest or through direct contact with bats. Human to human transmission occurs through direct contact with the blood, secretions and other body fluids. Symptoms of the virus are: sudden onset of fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and bleeding from body openings. Recent advancements have been carried out in the form of effective Ebola Virus Vaccine Inmazeb and Ebanga for Zaire Ebola Virus and anti-Ebola virus drug rVSV-ZEBOV (Ervebo). However, the rapid geographic propagation, non-specific clinical presentation, lack of adequate vaccine and specific diagnostic assay are the possible challenges to combat the dreaded public health menace of Ebola Virus Disease.