最近一期《Science》上发表了一篇有关今年爆发的埃博拉病毒基因组测序论文,从其分析结果中推断了关于此次疫情的来源和传播模式: Genomic surveillance elucidates Ebola virus origin and transmission during the 2014 outbreak。 这无疑是一篇极为 重要的文章,这篇貌似与平常论文一样的文章却有着非同寻常的沉重故事。 这篇国际合作 论文有 58名共同作者,文章8月5号投稿,21号接受。 《Science》同时报道了 令人遗憾的消息:有六位共同作者没能看到论文的发表,其中,五名作者是在工作中因直接感染了埃博拉病毒而牺牲,一名是在文章后期因中风去世。 Ebola's heavy toll on study authors 。 我试图从下面作者名单群中找到这六位作者名字,还颇费了点时间。国际合作论文的作者众多,他们的名字太容易被忽略了。以黑框标出的去世作者有:Mbalu Fonnie,Alex Moigboi,Alice Kovoma,Mohamed Fullah,Sheik Humarr Khan 和 Sidiki Saffa。让人震惊和难过的是,他们名字后面有个共同点,都 注明 了 个“3”,即隶属于塞拉里昂凯内马政府医院(Kenema Government Hospital, Kenema, Sierra Leone-KGH),他们 是工作在抗埃博拉第一线医护人员和科技人员。 从“Supplementary Materials ”可以清楚了解到KGH的科研人员如何工作的。他们遵循严格的工作程序筛选可疑病例,准确记录并收集血液样品,分离血浆或者血清,原地提取病毒RNA并诊断 埃博拉病人 ,最后所有生物样品按严格要求冷冻空运送到美国哈佛大学供进一步分析研究。令人赞赏和敬佩的是,KGH本土科学家所做的PCR分析结果质量之高,与后来在美国哈佛进行重复检验结果完全一致,这里有一句简单描述话可以说明 凯内马 科学家是如何完成好他们的 工作的: “ All samples testing positive at the field site were found to be positive by qRT-PCR and sequencing at Harvard. Additionally, all samples testing negative for EBOV at the field also tested negative at Harvard.” 可 以想像,没有他们的认真,努力和牺牲,远在美国和英国的那些顶尖科学家们是无法得到可靠的病人血液样品,无法对埃博拉病毒的来龙去脉进行探索, 也就没有这篇重要论文了 。 这篇用一线工作者生命换来的文章读起来很沉重,科研有时要牺牲,但愿他们的牺牲能为人类早点战胜埃博拉病毒做出贡献。 借此谨向工作在抗埃博拉一线医护人员和科学家表示由衷敬意。 Ebola's heavy toll on study authors
在西非乃至全球,近期埃博拉病毒病防控形势严峻。汤森路透集团作为全球领先的专业信息服务提供商,发布了埃博拉病毒病的相关研发信息报告。报告介绍了埃博拉病毒病的基本情况,从诊断、预防、治疗和相关靶标等角度进行了阐述,详见附件或相关报道: http://thomsonreuters.com/press-releases/082014/early-stage-ebola-treatments 。 报告英文全文: 埃博拉病毒病相关研发信息报告(英文).pdf PHILADEPHIA, PA - The Intellectual Property and Science business of Thomson Reuters , the world leader in intelligent information for businesses and professionals, released a comprehensive disease profile on Ebola Virus Disease that includes a detailed analysis of two new treatments in the pipeline and two experimental candidates approaching development. Ebola deaths in West Africa have exceeded the 1,000 mark since ravaging Liberia. Practitioners in Britain were recently ordered to look out for symptoms of the killer virus to stop it from taking hold in the UK, with doctors receiving new guidelines on how to deal with suspected cases. Ebola Virus Disease is particularly lethal. According to the World Health Organization, outbreaks have a fatality rate of up to 90 percent. There is currently no effective treatment. The Thomson Reuters Ebola Disease Briefing is available free of charge through its LS Research website, a resource providing researchers with the latest news on disease insights and developing treatments, through reports and biological pathway maps. This resource offers disease profiling and comparative data to the current drug landscape for clinically devastating, relevant diseases, such as Ebola. “Our LS Research resource is designed to place valuable scientific insights into the hands of researchers to offer new angles on understanding devastating diseases—not just as related to Ebola, but for other conditions that continue to compromise quality of life for people around the world,” said Jon Brett-Harris, managing director of Thomson Reuters Life Sciences. Through analysis using Thomson Reuters Integrity —an industry-leading resource providing researchers with reliable, detailed drug RD information across multiple disciplines— LS Research analysts identified two potential Ebola treatments in the drug pipeline: Sarepta Therapeutics’ VP24 expression inhibitor known as “AVI-7537” and Tekmira’s VP24 expression inhibitor known as “Ebola SNALP.” VP24 is believed to play a significant role in Ebola Virus Disease, and may have an effect on the formation and replication of the viral genome. Scientists are now exploring the inhibition of this VP24 protein as a potential treatment to block the building and reproduction of the Ebola Virus genome. Both of these treatments are currently in Phase 1 clinical trials. The LS Research site also provides comprehensive information on the disease itself. There are also two experimental treatment approaches set to move into the pipeline. The first, ZMapp, a novel drug candidate in development by Mapp BioPharmaceutical, LeafBio, Defyru, the U.S. Government and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), is a cocktail of three different humanized monoclonal antibodies produced in nicotina plants that target the virus. The aim of this potential therapy is to halt the progression of Ebola; it was recently successful in treating two American healthcare workers infected by the outbreak in West Africa. The second is a vaccine candidate rVSVdeltaG-SWGP-2A-MFL being developed by the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology . It consists of a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus expressing multiple regional fragments of the Ebola virus. To further support the efforts in the fight against the Ebola virus, Thomson Reuters BioWorld, an industry-leading biopharmaceutical news resource, has comprised a collection of articles highlighting the most innovative research in recent years and the latest updates to provide greater insight into the disease and the treatments in development. Visit BioWorld to view this special report. Visit LS Research to view the Ebola Disease Briefing and a variety of reports providing insights into other devastating conditions. Learn more about Integrity . Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com . Beijing Institute of Biotechnology,应该是中国人民解放军军事医学科学院生物工程研究所?