Promising Therapeutics against Ebola Virus Disease

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) has become a major threat to global peace and security. Since 1976, when Ebola virus was discovered, over 20 outbreaks have been reported. Most of these outbreaks occurred in rural areas of East and Central Africa. But the current 2014 outbreak, which started in Guinea in March 2014, spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal and Mali, and traveled beyond Africa into Europe and US. Thus far, there have been no approved therapeutics and preventive vaccines and hence response is limited to supportive care, barrier nursing, and management of patient complications. Spurred by the global threat, research has identified promising drug candidates against the disease. This review presents the current status of promising drug candidates against EVD. The current development status of the experimental drugs ZMapp, TKM-Ebola, Favipiravir (T-705 or Avigan), AVI 6002, BCX 4430 and Brincidofovir (CMX-001) is given. In the absence of licensed drugs, these first generation anti-Ebola virus experimental drugs, which are currently in phase 1 clinical trial, were administered to a limited number of healthcare workers during the current EVD outbreak.