Antibodies that recognize multiple ebolavirus species could treat the deadly infection.

Humans infected with ebolaviruses make antibodies that bind to proteins on the surface of virus particles. This prevents the virus from infecting more cells, but it is unclear whether antibodies for one of the species of ebolavirus will work for the others. To find out, Alexander Bukreyev at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, James Crowe at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and their team cultured antibody-producing B cells from seven people who survived a 2007 Ebola outbreak in Uganda, caused by an ebolavirus species called Bundibugyo.

Some of the antibodies blocked two other species of ebolaviruses. One of the Bundibugyo antibodies protected guinea pigs that had been infected with another species of ebolavirus.

Cell http://doi.org/bb3g (2016)