Of the potentially greatest significance, it can be safely stored at room temperature, rather than the deep sub zero temps needed (and in scarce supply, in much of rural Africa) for the current and effective vaccine stocks.
The team at the University of Nebraska is beginning mouse models this year. We will keep our fingers crossed, but here is the story, from Phys.org:
. . .Nebraska's Shi-Hua Xiang, Joshua Wiggins and colleagues took a special interest in scytovirin, a type of lectin produced by cyanobacteria, likely the Earth's first oxygen-producing organisms. Because scytovirin had shown some early success in inhibiting Ebola, the Husker team went about engineering two strains of lactic acid bacteria, which can safely colonize the human body, to display scytovirin on their own surfaces. The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.
After constructing research-safe shells of Ebola particles, the virologists introduced them to the two bacterial strains. Their experiments revealed that one of the engineered strains, Lactococcus lactis, could neutralize roughly 54% of the Ebola particles—more than twice the rate of scytovirin-free L. lactis.
Xiang, Wiggins and the team are now testing their bacteria-delivered antiviral in mice, where the virologists are determining whether the engineered L. lactis can neutralize Ebola the way it did in cell cultures. Passing that test could eventually lead to human trials.
If it does continue to perform, L. lactis -- which is already used to make cheese and buttermilk -- could become a relatively simple, inexpensive, long-term way to protect vulnerable populations against the devastating virus, the team said. . . .
Now you know -- a hopeful time, for advances in human disease management sciences. Onward.
नमस्ते
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