Deadly viruses hide deep in the brain!

Africa is still at risk of being infected by Ebola, one of the deadliest infectious diseases known to man

These measures helped curb the spread of the Ebola virus to some extent and saved the lives of patients

In the past, the medical community has also reported some cases of relapse, with a nurse who was infected with Ebola experiencing a relapse nine months after being cured, causing meningitis in her brain

In order to study how Ebola virus achieves this recurrent infection, especially why the brain is infected, the new study selected 36 rhesus monkeys for the virus infection test

During the process, the research team will screen the blood and cerebrospinal fluid of the rhesus monkeys, mainly looking for the genetic material of the Ebola virus

▲ The Ebola virus is lurking in the ventricle of the brain.

After treatment, all seven rhesus macaques recovered from the initial infection, however two developed recurrent infections and died 30 and 39 days after first exposure

All surviving rhesus monkeys were euthanized about 4 months after infection, and the researchers examined brain tissue samples from all rhesus monkeys

▲ Ebola virus under the electron microscope (Image source: Wikipedia, public domain, credit: CDC/ Dr.

In the two rhesus monkeys who died due to recurrent infection, a large amount of tissue damage and inflammation appeared in their entire ventricles, but other organs were still in a normal state

These areas, such as the vitreous cavity of the eye, the seminiferous tubules of the testes, and the ventricles of the brain, are not supported by a strong immune system

In fact, as early as 2021, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine pointed out that the presence of Ebola virus RNA in the cerebrospinal fluid was associated with relapse in patients

References:

[1] Study reveals Ebola virus can hide in brain, persist even years after treatment.

[2] Ebola can linger in brain fluid and trigger deadly relapse, monkey study suggests.