Ebola virus disease candidate vaccines under evaluation in clinical trials

ABSTRACT

Filoviruses are the etiological agents of two human illnesses: Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease. Until 2013, medical countermeasure development against these afflictions was limited to only a few research institutes worldwide as both infections were considered exotic due to very low case numbers. Together with the high case-fatality rate of both diseases, evaluation of any candidate countermeasure in properly controlled clinical trials seemed impossible. However, in 2013, Ebola virus was identified as the etiological agent of a large disease outbreak in Western Africa including almost 30,000 infections and more than 11,000 deaths, including case exportations to Europe and North America. These large case numbers resulted in medical countermeasure development against Ebola virus disease becoming a global public-health priority. This review summarizes the status quo of candidate vaccines against Ebola virus disease, with a focus on those that are currently under evaluation in clinical trials.

KEYWORDS:

• Candidate vaccine
• clinical trial
• Ebola virus
• Ebola virus disease
• ebolavirus
• EBOV
• EVD
• Filoviridae
• filovirus
• MCM
• medical countermeasure
• vaccine

Acknowledgments

We thank Laura Bollinger (Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick) for providing Technical Writing Services in critically editing this manuscript on behalf of Battelle Memorial Institute through Battelle Memorial Institute’s prime contract with NIAID under Contract No. HHSN272200700016I.

Declaration of interests

K Martins and S Bavari are supported by funding from the US Department of Defense and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (CB10208). The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the US Department of the Army, the US Department of Defense, the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) or of the institutions and companies affiliated with the authors. Jens H. Kuhn and this work were supported in part through Battelle Memorial Institute’s prime contract with NIAID under Contract No. HHSN272200700016I. A subcontractor to Battelle Memorial Institute who performed this work is Jens H. Kuhn, an employee of Tunnell Government Services, Inc. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.