Question

Passive immunotherapy has been used to treat some viral infections. Ebola outbreaks kill the majority of those infected. Therefore, obtaining enough plasma from convalescent patients to treat others is highly unlikely. Propose a possible solution to overcome this obstacle

Answer 1

A possible solution to overcome this obstacle is to generate the convalescent plasma in the animals and extracting the antibodies from the plasma of the animals and mixing them with the plasma of the patient and then transfusing this plasma+antibodies into the patients immune system. Though there will be rejectance of some of the antibodies generated, most of the antibodies will directly act on the pathogen and will give time for the patient to develop his/her immune system and help in development and eradication of the disease by generating antibodies against the pathogen.

A reference paper for this is being attached. Hope it helps. van Griensven, J., De Weiggheleire, A., Delamou, A., Smith, P. G., Edwards, T., Vandekerckhove, P., Bah, E. I., Colebunders, R., Herve, I., Lazaygues, C., Haba, N., & Lynen, L. (2016). The Use of Ebola Convalescent Plasma to Treat Ebola Virus Disease in Resource-Constrained Settings: A Perspective From the Field. Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 62(1), 69–74. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/civ680

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