Antibody therapeutics for Ebola virus disease

- Antibody therapy has historically been successful against a wide variety of pathogens.
- Only recently have antibodies shown efficacy in non-human primates against Ebola.
- Ongoing trials may determine if antibodies are clinically effective against Ebola.

With the unprecedented scale of the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, the clinical and scientific community scrambled to identify potential therapeutics for Ebola virus disease (EVD). Passive administration of antibodies has a long successful history for prophylaxis and therapy of a variety of infectious diseases, but the importance of antibodies in EVD has been unclear and is the subject of some debate. Recent studies in non-human primates have renewed interest in the potential of antibodies to impact EVD. Currently ongoing clinical evaluation of polyclonal and monoclonal antibody therapy in EVD patients in West Africa may finally offer a definitive answer to this debate.

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