Newswise — As an important part of the federal government's efforts to better characterize the threat posed by certain viruses, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has awarded a $1.5 million contract to fund one of the most comprehensive research programs to date on Marburg virus, a hemorrhagic fever virus.  The 18-month contract with the San Antonio-based Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) is aimed at exploring how Marburg virus causes disease. This will include studying the progression of infection and its effect on the immune system, as well as identifying viral genetic factors responsible for disease. The goals of this project are to prioritize threats and to develop new information that will inform the development of effective treatments and vaccines through Project BioShield. Project BioShield (P.L. 108-276) is a Department of Health and Human Services project intended to accelerate the process of research, development, purchase, and availability of effective countermeasures against selected biological agents. Research at SFBR on behalf of DHS' National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center will include genetic analyses of various Marburg virus strains as well as a detailed examination of the role viral and host proteins play, a field of study known as proteomics. "Right now, very little is known about how the Marburg virus works, what causes its pathogenicity, or what accounts for the difference in severity among the seven different variants of the virus," said Jean Patterson, Ph.D., chairman of the Virology and Immunology Department at SFBR and the lead investigator on the contract. "These are things we need to understand in order to develop effective remedies." "For example, previously known variants of the Marburg virus have a 40 to 60 percent mortality rate, while the Angola variant has a 90 percent mortality rate," said Ricardo Carrion Jr., Ph.D., of SFBR, a co-investigator on the contract. "There is little difference in the proteins among these variants, so the reason for the difference in their severity in unclear. That is one of the things we'll try to find out as part of our research." SFBR's biosafety level 4 containment laboratory will play an important role in studying the Marburg virus. Its Southwest National Primate Research Center on the same campus will also be a key part of the Marburg research program. Other resources and expertise will be brought to the program by various subcontractors, including Richard Drake, Ph.D, director of the Scientific Center for Biodefense at Eastern Virginia Medical School, who will work with protein samples for the proteomic analysis; and INCOGEN, Inc., an informatics company that will provide data management and analysis support for the project.  "This is an exciting opportunity to continue our collaborative efforts with Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and Eastern Virginia Medical School," said INCOGEN's CEO, Dr. Maciek Sasinowski. "The data generated during this project has significant potential to improve our understanding of Marburg and other hemorrhagic fevers and to develop measures against natural or deliberate outbreaks of these diseases."  "The virus transmits easily from person to person, so it is important for us to be out in front on research that could help in the development of vaccines and drug therapies," said Patterson, who also leads investigations on potential treatments and vaccines for anthrax and other biological agents. Scientists initially identified Marburg virus in 1967 after laboratory workers in Marburg, Germany, were infected, then others contracted the disease in Frankfurt, Germany, and Belgrade, Yugoslavia. All of those infected had handled blood, tissue, or cell cultures of African green monkeys from Uganda that had been naturally infected with the then-unknown virus.
It is endemic to Africa, where natural outbreaks typically occur every five or six years, Patterson explained. She said the virus also is a serious threat to the great apes and other nonhuman primates on the continent. "We're excited by the opportunity to begin such a large-scale research program on the virus," she said. "As we learn more about Marburg and how it works, we'll be better equipped to help defeat it."           "Our thanks go to the AT&T Foundation and the Coates Foundation, who together are dramatically accelerating the speed with which the keys to understanding complex diseases of major public health impact can be discovered," Williams-Blangero said. "These gifts will better enable SFBR scientists to identify previously unknown genes that directly influence a person's risk of disease, and to do so at an unprecedented rate that no other research group can match."
About SFBR Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research is one of the leading independent biomedical research institutions in the United States, dedicated to advancing human health through innovative biomedical research. It is recognized within scientific and academic communities worldwide for the quality of its basic research into the nature, causes, preventions, and treatments for disease. SFBR's staff of more than 75 doctoral-level scientists conducts nearly 200 major research projects, with marked success in the areas of genetics, neonatal development, metabolic disorders and infectious diseases.
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