During
the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, two new studies showed that the Ebola virus
experienced mutations that enabled it to spread more easily among humans. The
virus had infected about 28,000 people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone,
eventually killing about 11,000.
Two
articles published in Cell reported several mutations that seemed to enhance
the virus’s ability of infecting human (and other primate) cells. For example,
one mutation found by researchers appeared two times as successful at infecting
human cells. The mutations found in the studies were changes carried down into
their viral progeny and. Some mutations were found to be correlated with
greater likelihood of death due to the disease: humans infected with strains of
the virus with the mutation were more likely to die compared to those infected
with strains without the mutation.
Aside
from social factors that may have contributed to the spread of Ebola during the
outbreak 2013-2016, the genetic makeup of the virus could also have been a
contributing factor. This research gives more insights into the Ebola epidemic
in West Africa.
Read
more: http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Mutations-Helped-Ebola-Spread/story.xhtml?story_id=122002L0RIWU
Emily Nguyen
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