Clinical and Molecular Features of Ebola Virus Disease

Clinical Center

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

Project 1: In prior published work we described the clinical course of a patient with severe EVD cared for at the NIH Clinical Center in 2015; the peripheral blood leukocyte transcriptional responses during illness and recovery of this patient; EBOV kinetics and genetic diversification in serum during acute illness and in semen during convalescence; longitudinal analysis of antibody responses across the EBOV proteome during acute illness and recovery and EBOV kinetics in multiple other body compartments applied to highlight mathematical modeling challenges of EBOV-host dynamics during infection and treatment. Work completed this year includes validation and application of a high dimensional spectral flow cytometry panel and single cell sequencing to cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear compatible with biosafety level 4 lab inactivation requirements, to deeply characterize circulating cellular phenotypic and transcriptional responses during acute illness and recovery, and to correlate these responses with clinical and laboratory markers of critical illness and recovery. Additional ongoing work includes characterizing the longitudinal plasma proteome during acute illness and recovery. Project 2: Clinical and demographic data were collected at the time of ETU admission, transcribed into an electronic database, and de-identified. Diagnostic blood specimens were collected at time of ETU admission and during recovery among survivors and remaining aliquots were stored at the NIAID BSL-4 laboratories for subsequent analysis. De-identified specimens and clinical data were linked through an honest broker. Prior published work includes characterizing EBOV kinetics among survivors versus those who died and evaluating the association between viral load and timing of ETU admission and outcome. Ongoing work includes determining the rate of bacteremia among survivors versus those who died, and identifying predominant pathogens by culture and sequencing.