BACKGROUND: Better treatments are urgently needed for the management of Ebola virus epidemics in Equatorial Africa. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the use of passive immunotherapy for the treatment or prevention of Ebola virus disease. We placed findings from this review into the context of passive immunotherapy currently used for venom-induced disease, and recent improvements in manufacturing of polyvalent antivenom products. RESULTS: Passive immunotherapy appears to be one of the most promising specific treatments for Ebola. However, its potential has been incompletely evaluated, considering the overall experience and recent improvement of immunotherapy. Development and use of heterologous serum derivatives could protect people exposed to Ebola viruses with reasonable cost and logistics. CONCLUSION: Hyperimmune equine IgG fragments and purified polyclonal whole IgG deserve further consideration as treatment for exposure to the Ebola virus.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/610335 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Chippaux, J. P., Boyer, L. V., Alagon, A. |
| Contributors | UMR 216, Mother and Child Facing Tropical Disease, Research Institute for Development (IRD), Cotonou, Benin, and School of Pharmacy, Paris Descartes University, Venom Immunochemistry, Pharmacology and Emergency Response (VIPER) Institue, University of Arizona, Institute of Biotechnology, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) |
| Publisher | BioMed Central |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Rights | © 2015 Chippaux et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) |
| Relation | http://www.jvat.org/content/21/1/3 |
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