THURSDAY, Feb. 25, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Two investigational vaccines for Ebola virus disease are well-tolerated and immunogenic, according to a report from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The research was presented at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held from Feb 22 to 25 in Boston.
Fatorma Bolay, Ph.D., from the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research in Monrovia, and colleagues tested two vaccine candidates among participants in the PREVAIL I trial. The vaccines tested were the cAd3-EBOZ vaccine candidate, which makes use of a chimpanzee-derived cold virus, and the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, which uses the vesicular stomatitis virus.
The researchers note that 1,500 men and women ages 18 years and older were enrolled in the trial at Redemption Hospital in Monrovia; participants had no reported history of Ebola virus disease. Three groups of 500 patients received either one of the two vaccines or a saline injection. The vaccines were well-tolerated. At one month, 87 and 94 percent of volunteers who received the cAd3-EBOZ vaccine candidate and the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine had measureable Ebola antibodies. Overall, 6.3 percent of enrollees had Ebola antibodies at the start of the trial.
"Two investigational vaccines designed to protect against Ebola virus disease were well-tolerated and induced an immune response among 1,000 vaccinated participants in the phase 2 randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial," according to a news release from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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