All 20 healthy adults who
received the vaccine in a trial run by researchers from the National
Institutes of Health in Maryland produced an immune response and
developed anti-Ebola antibodies, the NIH said Wednesday.
None suffered serious side effects, although two people developed a brief fever within a day of vaccination.
The vaccine is being
developed by the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases and British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. The process
has been fast-tracked in light of the current catastrophic Ebola
outbreak in West Africa, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives.
CNN speaks to Ebola vaccine participant
"Based on these positive
results from the first human trial of this candidate vaccine, we are
continuing our accelerated plan for larger trials to determine if the
vaccine is efficacious in preventing Ebola infection," said Anthony
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases.
In this trial, genetic
material from two strains of the Ebola virus, Sudan and Zaire, was
delivered using a chimpanzee cold virus that does not harm humans. The
vaccine does not contain the Ebola virus and cannot cause a person to be
infected with Ebola, the NIH said. The current outbreak involves the
Zaire strain.
The adults, volunteers
ages between 18 and 50, were split into two groups. Half received an
intramuscular injection of vaccine at a lower dose and 10 received the
same vaccine at a higher dose, the NIH said.
Researchers tested the
volunteers' blood at two weeks and four weeks after vaccination to
determine if anti-Ebola antibodies had been produced.
All 20 volunteers
developed such antibodies within four weeks of receiving the vaccine,
with levels higher in those who were given the higher-dose vaccine.
The researchers also
looked to see if the vaccine prompted production of immune system cells
called T cells, after a previous study on primates using the same
vaccine suggested they may also help to protect from the disease.
They found that many of
the volunteers did produce T cells, including CD8 T cells, which may
play a crucial role in protecting against infection by Ebola viruses.
Four weeks after
vaccination, the CD8 T cells were found in two volunteers who received
the lower dose vaccine and in seven who had the higher dose, the NIH
said.
The two volunteers who briefly developed a fever received the higher dose vaccine.
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