GOOD NEWS ; Researchers Find Drug That Might Cure Ebola

 Not less than 24 hours after a report released by World Health Organisation, confirm that up to 4 269 people have contracted and no fewer than 2 200 others dead as a result of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease(EVD), this year in West African countries which includes Liberia, Sierra-Leone, Guinea, Senegal and Nigeria, some good news has appeared.

This is according to an announcement made on Saturday, 13 September, 2014, by researchers at the University of Liverpool that they have made a discovery that can lead to a cure for the deadly Ebola virus.

It would be recalled that since the epidemic outbreak in the West Africa early 2014, scientists and medical experts have been trying hard to fight the deadly Ebola virus and limit it’s outspread.
But it’s a long way to announce a cure for Ebola virus till date.

Only experimental drugs are been used to treat the victims of this deadly virus though some of the drugs have shown some positive results.

However, a team from the Health Protection Research Unit at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Infection and Global Health, said they have stumbled across an existing drug used in the treatment of severe heart disease, which could be adapted to fight the contagious Ebola virus.

According to Xinhua reports,  in collaboration with Public Health England, the team has been looking at how Ebola virus hijacks proteins inside cells, and then seeking ways to stop this from happening.

It was gathered that the experts looked at what proteins inside a cell are critical for the functions of Ebola virus and are hijacked by the virus to help with infection. One of the proteins they have targeted is known as VP24.

This protein disrupts signaling in infected human cells and disrupts the body’s immune system and the fight against the virus.

The Liverpool team then tried to find out if any existing drugs are available that could block the function of this particular protein.