Antibody-dependent enhancement of Ebola virus infection

Ebola virus, which belongs to the Filoviridae family, is known as pathogen that causes acute, highly fatal hemorrhagic diseases in human. Ebola virus is a negative-stranded RNA virus with a filamentous envelope. Its genome encodes eight proteins, and two of which are glycoproteins (GP) that are important for Ebola virus infection. One is the envelope GP, which is responsible for binding to the receptor and fusion of viral and host cell membrane, and the other is the non-structural secreted GP released from the infected cell. There are four different strains of Ebola virus: Zaire, Sudan, Ivory Coast, and Reston. Plasma or serum from patients in the convalescent stage of Zaire strain infection promoted infection of kidney cells in nonhuman primates with Zaire strain. This promotion was mediated by antibodies to GP and the complement component C1q. This shows that human Ebola Zaire virus infection induces antibodies that increase the infectivity of virus. This suggests a new mechanism for antibody-dependent enhancement of Ebola virus infection, which explain the devastating Ebola outbreaks in human populations.
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