Paper Example on Ebola Vaccine Designs

Introduction

Ebola fever which is also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) is an acute infection caused by RNA- contaminated with viruses known as Filoviridae family. The condition has resulted in too many deaths around the world. The primary symptoms of the disease include; haemorrhage, muscle and abdominal pains, headache and vomiting (Mooney, 2018). The virus belongs to a genus called Ebolavirus that has five different types of viruses that include; Zaire Ebola viruses, Sudan, Bundibugyo, Tai, and Reston Ebola Virus. The disease was first detected in Zaire in 1976, and a short time later at Sudan. After 40 years, there was an outbreak of the disease in central African Countries, and as a result, many people lost their lives. However, all the explosions that have ever happened have been successfully and timely controlled (Bazhan et al., 2018).

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In 2014, there was an outbreak of Ebola diseases in West African countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, and Nigeria. More than 20,000 cases of EBOV and over 7900 victims died. The severity of the disease called for support cooperation among countries across the world. The main challenge that the physicians met in an attempt to control the spread of the infection were the lack of vaccines, and prophylactic drugs against the viruses. The extensive fatalities caused by the disease forced the researchers to pay attention to the possible countermeasures against the disease (Nason et al., 2016).

Most of the clinical trials conductedby the researchers are in animals. The widespread outbreak of the disease resulted in an urgent call for human tests to determine the most effective vaccines. The most common Vaccines used are rVSV-ZEBOV and cAd3-EBOZ. Currently, the researchers are working on the best possible vaccines that can help eliminate the pandemic infection. The next chapter will reveal what kind of research has done during the last years. Additionally, it is essential to look at the methods that the researchers have conducted the results and discussions, and the conclusions.

The Goal of the Study

The outbreak of the disease in 2016 in West African claimed many lives, a situation that accelerated many scientific vaccination trials that aimed to contain the epidemic. Two types of vaccines were that had tried in non- human primates were tried to humans. The research by Agnandji et al., (2017), applied the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus and a Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV) to find out whether it would be useful as a human. The study aimed to investigate the outcomes off various trials of different doses from both children and adults. The researchers used multiple treatments which include; 2107 PFU, 3106 3105 PFU, 3104 PFU and 3103 PFU.

The research by Bazhan et al., (2018), aimed to design a synthetic polyp tope T-cell immunogens vaccines against Ebola drugs and analyse their ability to provide immunity.

The EBOVAC- Salone study was initiated as a clinical trial after the outbreak of West Africa Ebola. The study aimed to determine the safety and the ability of the EBOVAC-Salone design to induce immunity (Mooney, 2018).

The rampant spread of Ebola disease in West Africa prompted further research on determining the best possible vaccine effective for human use. Two types of vaccines were used in the clinical trials, and they include cAd3-EBOZ and rVSV-ZEBOV (Nason et al., 2016).

The researchers aimed to identify the epitopes on Ebola viral proteins that have resistant properties and forecast the vaccines against Ebola control (Khan, 2015).

Method

The research by Agnandji et al., (2017), initiated their trials at CERMEL in Gabon. The study was a randomized test that involved 11 adults, not above the age of 50 years and 20 children who were aged between the ages of 6 to 12. However, people who were allergic to the vaccine, pregnant and lactating mothers were excluded during the study.

The research by Bazhan et al., (2018), used two different artificial polyepitope Immunogenic, which are cytotoxic and epitopes of Ebola Virus using a software program known as TEpredict. The ability to vaccines to induce immunity was based on the strength of the enhance T-cell response in BALB.

The study by (Mooney, (2018) w involved the students from Sierra Leone University and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine during the trial of the research. Also, Two no governmental organizations provided both IT and communications support.

The study by Nason et al., (2016) used two types of vaccines takes for human testing. The phase one trials cAd3-EBOZ vaccine were conducted in USA, United Kingdom, Mali and Switzerland while those of rVSV-ZEBOV commenced in the United States, Germany, Gabon, Switzerland, Canada and Kenya. The researchers performed three clinical tests in three different countries to determine the efficacy of the vaccines. In Sierra Leone, about 6000 people were used during the trial process of rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, In Liberia, researchers performed tests for both cAd3-EBOZ ZEBOV and rVSV-ZEBOV. The scientists also conducted a ring trial Guinea.

The study involved various techniques used in petide vaccine development and target site analysis for the Ebola virus. The study relied upon Epitope vaccine design and target sight analysis is based on Self-optimized prediction method with alignment and grand average hydropathicity (GRAVY) (Khan, 2015). .

Findings

The study Agnandji et al., (2017), shows that about 39 participants in the trial of rVSVDG-ZEBOV-GP doses of 3105 and 3106. PFU used them for 28 days, and the immunity of the treatments lasted for six months. Children, who were vaccinated with small doses 3106 to 5107 PFU, shed their saliva and urine. People who used the vaccine with a dose of 2107 showed that the dose has a prolonged viraemia that resulted in shedding. However, no existing knowledge explains the mechanism behind viraemia and shedding. The vaccines with low vaccines could be used for children and individuals with inborn immunity responses to prevent the replication of the rVSVDGP-ZEBOV-GP.

The research by Bazhan et al., (2018), shows that the recombinant placid induces responses to the lymphocytes of the specimens used.

Many challenges emerged during the trial of the EBOVAC -Salone related to regulations, operations and societal cooperation. The study became complicated due to sparse road networks into the interior of the Sierra Leone country. Additionally, the failure of the design was as a result of the recruitment of the participants that took place before and after the outbreak.

Out of the three trials performed by Nason et al., (2016), the ring trial was the most effective vaccine. The trial proved the ability of the vaccines to control the epidemic. Additionally, the vaccine was the only one that was able to answer the first questions specifically based on vaccine efficacy and the results were positive.

T-cell epitope-based design is a practical approach. The epitope is vaccine non-allergic when it is developed using selective epitopes. A useful peptide epitope has various characteristics such as, the ability to process and have high affinity and the population coverage of the peptide (Khan, 2015).

Conclusions

The study by Agnandji et al., (2017), is evidence that the vaccine with a dose of 2107 PFU has low provides safety and immunogenicity for adults. However, the replication of rVSVDGP-ZEBOV-GP in children and young adults, further research on the lower doses are needed. Small doses of immunity are useful when individuals have innate antibodies.

The research by Bazhan et al., (2018), shows that the responses show that the recombinant placids are active DNA vaccines against Ebola. However, there is a need for future studies to determine the capacity to which the vaccines can trigger cytotoxic and protective mechanisms against Ebola Virus.

Many lessons can be learnt from the setup and the implementation of EBOVAC Salone. The challenges that hindered the implementation of the design for clinical trials against Vaccine can be useful help o create awareness to other researchers on the possible difficulties on the ground. The challenges range from operations issues, inaccessible, low community engagement and low turnout of participants.

The ring trail is a success in the fight against the spread of Ebola. However, the test requires more research to determine its effectiveness of test using the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine in the long term (Nason et al., 2016)

To overcome the epidemic Ebola disease, scientists must learn the various tools that can help to come up with an effective vaccine. The use of computational and Bioinformatics methods could be reliable in the fight against Ebola. The B-cell and T-cell epitopes could enhance a breakthrough for the treatment and control of the disease (Khan, 2015).

References

Agnandji, S. T., Fernandes, J. F., Bache, E. B., Mba, R. M. O., Brosnahan, J. S., Kabwende, L., ... & Biedenkopf, N. (2017). Safety and immunogenicity of rVSVDG-ZEBOV-GP Ebola vaccine in adults and children in Lambarene, Gabon: A phase I randomised trial. PLoS medicine, 14(10), e1002402.

Bazhan, S. I., Antonets, D. V., Karpenko, L. I., Oreshkova, S. F., Kaplina, O. N., Starostina, E. V., ... & Ilyichev, A. A. (2019). In silico Designed Ebola Virus T-Cell Multi-Epitope DNA Vaccine Constructions Are Immunogenic in Mice. Vaccines, 7(2), 34

Gross, L., Lhomme, E., Pasin, C., Richert, L., & Thiebaut, R. (2018). Ebola vaccine development: Systematic review of pre-clinical and clinical studies, and meta-analysis of determinants of antibody response variability after vaccination. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 74, 83-96.

Khan, M. A., Hossain, M. U., RakibUzZaman, S. M., & Morshed, M. N. (2015). Epitopebased peptide vaccine design and target site depiction against Ebola viruses: an immunoinformatics study. Scandinavian journal of immunology, 82(1), 25-34.

Mooney, T., Smout, E., Leigh, B., Greenwood, B., Enria, L., Ishola, D., & Watson-Jones, D. (2018). EBOVAC-Salone: Lessons learned from implementing an Ebola vaccine trial in an Ebola-affected country. Clinical Trials, 15(5), 436-443.

Nason, M. (2016). Statistics and logistics: Design of Ebola vaccine trials in West Africa. Clinical Trials, 13(1), 87-91.