BioCentury
ARTICLE | Preclinical News

Human mAbs could treat Lassa fever

September 6, 2017 10:54 PM UTC

In a paper published in Nature Medicine, researchers at the University of Texas, Tulane University and Zalgen Labs LLC (Germantown, Md.) showed that Lassa virus glycoprotein-neutralizing mAbs rescued non-human primates infected with Lassa virus, suggesting the mAbs could be used to treat Lassa fever.

In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) added Lassa fever to its list of the top emerging pathogens likely to cause severe outbreaks in the near future, and for which few or no medical countermeasures exist. NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) also lists Lassa virus as an emerging infectious disease priority pathogen. There are no approved therapies for Lassa fever, and no compounds in clinical development...