An immunotoxin targeting Ebola virus glycoprotein inhibits Ebola virus production from infected cells.

Yingyun Cai, Shuiqing Yu, Xiaoli Chi, Sheli R Radoshitzky, Jens H Kuhn, Edward A Berger

PloS one 2021

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Ebola virus (EBOV), a member of the mononegaviral family Filoviridae, causes severe disease associated with high lethality in humans. Despite enormous progress in development of EBOV medical countermeasures, no anti-EBOV treatment has been approved. We designed an immunotoxin in which a single-chain variable region fragment of the EBOV glycoprotein-specific monoclonal antibody 6D8 was fused to the effector domains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A (PE38). This immunotoxin, 6D8-PE38, bound specifically to cells expressing EBOV glycoproteins. Importantly, 6D8-PE38 targeted EBOV-infected cells, as evidenced by inhibition of infectious EBOV production from infected cells, including primary human macrophages. The data presented here provide a proof of concept for immunotoxin-based targeted killing of infected cells as a potential antiviral intervention for Ebola virus disease.

Citation

Yingyun Cai, Shuiqing Yu, Xiaoli Chi, Sheli R Radoshitzky, Jens H Kuhn, Edward A Berger. An immunotoxin targeting Ebola virus glycoprotein inhibits Ebola virus production from infected cells. PloS one. 2021;16(1):e0245024