Ebola can hide in your brain fluid and reactivate long after you think you're over it
Image credit: Maciej Frolow via Getty Images
News this week that should awe and amaze devotees of the malevolent creator Creationists like to imagine creates everything and designs any modifications needed to its parasites to keep them making people suffer and die because a mythical couple ate one of its apples.
It is the news that the Ebola virus has been designed to hide in the fluid that surrounds, protects and nourishes our brain, from where it can launch a fresh attack many weeks after you think you've recovered from an earlier attack. Clearly, the divine malevolence is not going to give up easily in its determination to make as many people sick and die as possible, especially those living in West Africa. That'll teach them to think their immune systems, together with modern medical science, can beat it at its nasty little game.
Research published in Science Translational Medicine a few days ago explained how it performs this masterstroke. The study was carried out by a team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), led by Xiankun (Kevin) Zeng, Ph.D.
According to the USAMRIID new release:
Ours is the first study to reveal the hiding place of brain Ebola virus persistence and the pathology causing subsequent fatal recrudescent Ebola virus-related disease in the nonhuman primate model. We found that about 20 percent of monkeys that survived lethal Ebola virus exposure after treatment with monoclonal antibody therapeutics still had persistent Ebola virus infection—specifically in the brain ventricular system, in which cerebrospinal fluid is produced, circulated, and contained—even when Ebola virus was cleared from all other organs.
Fortunately, with these approved vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapeutics, we are in a much better position to contain outbreaks. However, our study reinforces the need for long-term followup of Ebola virus disease survivors—even including survivors treated by therapeutic antibodies—in order to prevent recrudescence. This will serve to reduce the risk of disease re-emergence, while also helping to prevent further stigmatization of patients.
Fortunately, with these approved vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapeutics, we are in a much better position to contain outbreaks. However, our study reinforces the need for long-term followup of Ebola virus disease survivors—even including survivors treated by therapeutic antibodies—in order to prevent recrudescence. This will serve to reduce the risk of disease re-emergence, while also helping to prevent further stigmatization of patients.
Xiankun Zeng, PhD, project leader
United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)
Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD, USA.
United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)
Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD, USA.
Some recent Ebola virus disease outbreaks in Africa have been linked to persistent infection in patients who had survived previous outbreaks, according to the paper’s senior author, Xiankun (Kevin) Zeng, Ph.D. In particular, the 2021 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Guinea re-emerged from a persistently infected survivor of the previous major outbreak at least five years ago. However, the exact “hiding place” of persistent Ebola virus and the underlying pathology of subsequent recrudescent, or recurring, disease in survivors—especially those treated with standard-of-care monoclonal antibody therapeutics—were largely unknown. So Zeng and his team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases used a nonhuman primate model, the one that most closely recapitulates Ebola virus disease in humans, to address these questions.
[…]
In particular, Zeng said, two monkeys that initially recovered from Ebola virus-related disease after treatment with antibody therapeutics had recurrence of severe clinical signs of Ebola virus infection and succumbed to the disease. Severe inflammation and massive Ebola virus infection were present in the brain ventricular system; no obvious pathology and viral infection were found in other organs.
The persistent Ebola virus may reactivate and cause disease relapse in survivors, potentially causing a new outbreak.Recrudescence has previously been reported in human survivors of Ebola virus disease, according to the authors. For example, a British nurse experienced Ebola virus relapse in the brain, suffering from meningoencephalitis nine months after recovering from severe Ebola virus disease. She had received therapeutic antibodies during the 2013-2016 outbreak in Western Africa, the largest such outbreak to date. In addition, a vaccinated patient who had been treated with monoclonal antibody therapeutics for Ebola virus disease six months earlier relapsed and died at the end of the 2018-2020 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Unfortunately, that case also led to many subsequent human-to-human transmissions.
Jun Liu, Ph.D, first co-author
United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)
Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD, USA.
Ebola virus (red) specifically persists in the macrophages (green) that infiltrate the brain ventricular system of a rhesus monkey that survived Ebola virus exposure after treatment with monoclonal antibodies. (Nuclei counterstained in blue.)
Images by Dr. Xiankun (Kevin) Zeng, USAMRIID
AbstractWhat a charmer, eh? How sneaky can you get to make someone think you've survived a deadly virus, only to find several weeks, months or even years later, that you still have the virus waiting to kill you and infect many more people with whom you might come into contact.
Effective therapeutics have been developed against acute Ebola virus disease (EVD) in both humans and experimentally infected nonhuman primates. However, the risk of viral persistence and associated disease recrudescence in survivors receiving these therapeutics remains unclear. In contrast to rhesus macaques that survived Ebola virus (EBOV) exposure in the absence of treatment, we discovered that EBOV, despite being cleared from all other organs, persisted in the brain ventricular system of rhesus macaque survivors that had received monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment. In mAb-treated macaque survivors, EBOV persisted in macrophages infiltrating the brain ventricular system, including the choroid plexuses. This macrophage infiltration was accompanied by severe tissue damage, including ventriculitis, choroid plexitis, and meningoencephalitis. Specifically, choroid plexus endothelium-derived EBOV infection led to viral persistence in the macaque brain ventricular system. This resulted in apoptosis of ependymal cells, which constitute the blood–cerebrospinal fluid barrier of the choroid plexuses. Fatal brain-confined recrudescence of EBOV infection manifested as severe inflammation, local pathology, and widespread infection of the ventricular system and adjacent neuropil in some of the mAb-treated macaque survivors. This study highlights organ-specific EBOV persistence and fatal recrudescent disease in rhesus macaque survivors after therapeutic treatment and has implications for the long-term follow-up of human survivors of EVD.
Liu, Jun; Trefry, John C.; Babka, April M.; Schellhase, Christopher W.; Coffin, Kayla M.; Williams, Janice A.; Raymond, Jo Lynne W.; Facemire, Paul R.; Chance, Taylor B.; Davis, Neil M.; Scruggs, Jennifer L.; Rossi, Franco D.; Haddow, Andrew D.; Zelko, Justine M.; Bixler, Sandra L.; Crozier, Ian; Iversen, Patrick L.; Pitt, Margaret L.; Kuhn, Jens H.; Palacios, Gustavo; Zeng, Xiankun
Ebola virus persistence and disease recrudescence in the brains of antibody-treated nonhuman primate survivors
Science Translational Medicine 14 (631) eabi5229; DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abi5229
Copyright © 2022 The Authors, exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Reprinted by kind permission under licence #5247761223272
It takes a real, hate-filled genius to come up with a design like that.
Unfortunately, all it takes is evolution by utililitarian, amoral and unplanned evolution by natural selection to design it too.
Ebola is another example of pure evil, in this case, Natural evil. It was crrated by the Devil or by a sadistic demon. No way would an all good creator God create such vile rot. No way, no how. The creator is a criminal and thug who has no conscience whatsoever. The creator has feces for brains ans has feces for morals. Mentally screwed up and morally screwed up is the creator.
ReplyDeleteVictims of ebola vomit and as they die blood pours out from their orifices and bloody diarrhea. If you can imagine what this disgusting, vile disease looks like and smells like. Its like something from a horror movie. Its a CRIME which Nature inflicts on ifs creation. The creationists ought to be ashamed and embarrassed.