Ebola Virus Mutated To Better Infect Humans

The Ebola virus may have adapted to better infect human cells, say scientists who identified mutations in the deadly virus that developed during the recent epidemic in West Africa. More than 28,000 people have been infected with the virus and more than 11,000 people died from the disease. To study whether the virus might have changed genetically in response to infection of such large numbers of people, the researchers used Ebola virus gnomic sequences to track virus mutations. They found that mutations of the gene that encodes the Ebola virus glycol-protein increased the virus’ ability to infect cells of humans and other primates. Ebola virus circulated in an unknown animal reservoir and rarely crosses over into people. When the virus does cross over, the effect has been devastating to those people who are infected. Until recently, the human diseases outbreaks have been short lived, and the virus has had little opportunity to adapt genetically to the human host. By increasing infectivity in human cells, it is possible that these mutations increased Ebola virus spread during the outbreak.