virology blog
About viruses and viral disease
Vincent, Kathy, and Alan review the ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the finding that mutations identified in the 2015 West African epidemic do not alter pathogenesis in animals.
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Several mutations that arose during the 2013-2016 outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa were previously found to increase infectivity for human cells. However, a study in two animal models show no effect of these mutations on disease.
Among the many mutations identified among the hundreds of genome sequences obtained during the 2013-2016 Ebola virus epidemic, a change from alanine to valine at position 82 (A82V) that arose early in the outbreak was found to increase infectivity in human cells of HIV particles with the Ebola virus glycoprotein. The authors suggested that this change might have been in part responsible for the extent and severity of the outbreak. [Read more…] about Ebola virus mutations do not affect pathogenicity