Control of the Ebola Oubreak by both innovative Ultrasensitive Detection of EBOV and therapy (IF-EBOla)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Israel,Italy,France,France,France,France,United States,Canada
Call: Health (H2020-Adhoc-2014-20, 2014)
Start date: 2014-11-01
End date: 2017-10-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2037770.0
EU funding (EUR): 1992770.0
Participants: 11
Project status: CLOSED

IF-EBOLA has been strategically designed to efficiently respond to critical needs required to control Ebola outbreak from spreading and prepare a therapeutic approach to save lives. The work involves two of the main EVD outbreak sites, Sierra Leone and Liberia. MDs, public health authorities and virus experts working on site, under ethical regulatory rules, will extend their collaboration to companies and institutions to form a consortium of outstanding complementary partners, sharing their innovative technological approaches for a common goal. The main goal of our project is to contribute to provide innovative ultrasensitive diagnostics and therapeutic approaches for an early and accurate diagnostic for an early therapeutic treatment to control the epidemic and safe lives. We have been obligated to modify and extend for one year our initial two-year period IF-EBOLA action program due to both major foreseen and unforeseen changes produced during this “non-emergency” period: consisting mainly now in 3 main actions: (i) Preclinical validation of the therapeutic equine anti-Ebola antibodies; (ii) Clinical validation of the ultrasensitive detection (iii) homeostasis (“pathology”) profiling of patients and survivors. Originally (“emergency period”) IF-EBOLA included 2 phases: (I) a phase of preparation including, ethical authorizations, antibody production, technical and field organization as well as the beginning a follow-up of the homeostatic profile of contacts early-EBOV diagnosed and self-cured convalescent individuals in the absence of existing treatment, (with an ultrasensitive detection method of pernicious microorganisms, from the EC USDEP project qualified as a European success story “USDEP” project in 2010 by the EC-Project Officer) and (II) phase of a clinical study using a wide validated approach revisited with an innovative concept (strongly supported EC/EMA-WHO), we propose to carry out an experimental passive-immune therapy based on neutralizing capacity of horse anti-EBOV polyclonal F(ab’)2 on early-diagnosed patients to impact and reduce their pre-existing viremia, their mortality, the evolution of their homeostasis profile, during and after this treatment (once patients become convalescents). The homeostasis status evolution will help to generate high quality scientific data to understand the EVD, the effect of this therapy and cure parameters characterized at 3 different levels: immune (transcriptomes, NGS, metagenomics); infectious (other than EBOV, DNA arrays), and EBOV diversity (sequencing and metagenomics).

Keywords: ebola virus,outbreak control,ultrasensitive detection,therapy,ultra mobile laboratories,immune profiling