Ebola and Protens: They Key to our Future

Ebola: the solution may be in sight

Research in the US suggests that a treatment for the deadly Ebola virus may be less than a decade away

The Ebola virus, one of Africa's most feared sicknesses, originates in the Ebola river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While this disease spreads rapidly and viciously infects thousands of inhabitants in the area, scientists have been baffled when it comes to finding out any information about the disease. With the Ebola virus having a very complicated structure, scientists have struggled on their journey to figure out how the virus spreads from one individual to another. With the spread of this virus being unclear to doctors, this characteristic has made it very difficult to find a cure for the disease, which ultimately results in death for a large amount of individuals each year. With scientists investing lots of time into this disease, scientist believe that they have found a potential lead in the discovery of a cure. When scientists were experimenting on mice, they decided to limit the protein Niemann-Pick C1, a portion of protein that humans and animals share. With the limited amount of protein present in the mice, Ebola was then exposed to the rodents, and the rodents were ultimately left untouched by the disease. With advancement on this disease on our horizon, many new possibilities in developmental medicine have the potential to come up.

With the Ebola virus being so hard to find treatment for, doctors and scientists have uncovered a massive breakthrough that could ultimately open up a new door for the medical field and research. With many different combinations of proteins being present in the human body, Scientists not have the ability to focus on individual proteins and be able to test them on a regular basis. Although scientists have been studying proteins and DNA structures for years, we are still in the developmental stage for learning about these intricate structures. Proteins are the key to success in the field of medicine.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/28/ebola-virus-breakthrough-niemann-pick