Marburg virus particles (blue) on the surface of an infected cultured cell (red).Credit: NIAID/Science Photo Library

马尔堡病毒颗粒（蓝色）在受感染的培养细胞（红色）表面。图片来源：NIAID/科学图片库

Researchers are in a race against time to deploy vaccines and treatments against a deadly virus that has exploded in Rwanda.As of 30 September, the central African country has recorded 27 cases and 9 deaths caused by Marburg virus, a highly deadly relative of Ebola virus that also causes haemorrhagic fever, with most cases occurring among health-care workers in the country’s capital Kigali..

研究人员正在争分夺秒地部署针对卢旺达爆发的致命病毒的疫苗和治疗方法。截至9月30日，该中非国家已记录到马尔堡病毒引起的27例病例和9例死亡，马尔堡病毒是埃博拉病毒的致命亲戚，也会引起出血热，大多数病例发生在该国首都基加利的医护人员中。。

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There are no approved therapies or vaccines against Marburg virus. But if the current outbreak continues — most are small and quickly contained — health officials and researchers hope to gather valuable data on the safety and potential effectiveness of vaccines and treatments.On 30 September, the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, hosted a teleconference involving Rwandan scientists appointed by the government to run potential trials of vaccines and treatments and members of the Marburg virus vaccine consortium (MARVAC), a group of companies, non-profit organizations and researchers, according to a WHO spokesperson.Ring vaccinationBroadbrush plans for trials were hashed out in the wake of a 2023 Marburg virus outbreak in Equatorial Guinea, which caused 12 deaths among 17 confirmed cases and another 23 fatal probable cases.

目前还没有针对马尔堡病毒的批准疗法或疫苗。但是，如果目前的疫情持续下去（大多数疫情规模较小且迅速得到控制），卫生官员和研究人员希望收集有关疫苗和治疗的安全性和潜在有效性的宝贵数据。。2023年赤道几内亚马尔堡病毒爆发后，制定了环形疫苗试验计划，该病毒在17例确诊病例中导致12例死亡，另外23例可能致命病例。

But no experimental medicines were tested during the outbreak.Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Florida in Gainesville and MARVAC member, says that if the Rwanda outbreak continues, the plan is to trial at least one vaccine in a strategy known as ring vaccination. The approach — which showed the effectiveness of an Ebola vaccine in Guinea during the 2014–16 West African outbreak — involves immunizing contacts of an infected individual..

但在疫情爆发期间没有测试任何实验药物。佛罗里达大学盖恩斯维尔分校（University of Florida in Gainesville）的生物统计学家艾拉·朗吉尼（IraLongini）和马尔瓦茨（MARVAC）成员表示，如果卢旺达疫情持续，计划将采用一种称为环式疫苗接种的策略，试验至少一种疫苗。该方法显示了2014-16年西非疫情期间几内亚埃博拉疫苗的有效性，包括对感染者的接触者进行免疫接种。。

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A WHO ethics committee had previously approved plans for the vaccine trial, as well as one for treatments such as the antiviral drug remdesivir, which was tested against Ebola and COVID-19, and monocloncal antibody treatments that have shown promise in animals. The WHO spokesperson said the next urgent step is for the trials to be approved in Rwanda.Several Marburg vaccines are in various stages of development.

世卫组织伦理委员会先前已经批准了疫苗试验计划，以及抗病毒药物雷姆德西韦（针对埃博拉病毒和新型冠状病毒）等治疗计划，以及在动物中显示出前景的单克隆抗体治疗计划。世卫组织发言人表示，下一个紧急步骤是在卢旺达批准这些试验。几种马尔堡疫苗处于不同的开发阶段。

The furthest along is a candidate led by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington DC, which uses a modified chimpanzee adenovirus to deliver instructions for cells to make a Marburg virus protein. A trial involving 40 healthy US participants found the vaccine safe and that it generated an immune response against the virus in most people1, and a larger trial in Uganda and Kenya is under way.A spokesperson for Sabin says the group is working with Rwanda’s government, but did not say how many doses of its vaccine were currently available.

进展最快的是华盛顿特区萨宾疫苗研究所领导的一名候选人，该研究所使用一种改良的黑猩猩腺病毒为细胞提供制造马尔堡病毒蛋白的指令。一项涉及40名健康美国参与者的试验发现，该疫苗是安全的，并且在大多数人中产生了针对该病毒的免疫反应1，并且正在乌干达和肯尼亚进行更大规模的试验。萨宾的发言人表示，该组织正在与卢旺达政府合作，但没有透露目前有多少剂量的疫苗可用。

In 2023, a WHO advisory committee named the Sabin vaccine as its top candidate for testing during a Marburg virus outbreak.Rapid productionA similar vaccine, being developed at the University of Oxford, UK, was also named as a priority for testing during a Marburg outbreak. Teresa Lambe, a vaccinologist at Oxford leading the Marburg vaccine’s development, says that the vaccine has so far proven safe in the handful of participants who have received it in an ongoing UK trial.Mark Feinberg, chief executive of the International Aids Vaccine Initiative in New York City, says there are currently no doses available of the Marburg vaccine his organization is developing — which is similar to an approved Ebola vaccine — but production is scheduled to start this week..

2023年，世卫组织咨询委员会将萨宾疫苗列为马尔堡病毒爆发期间测试的首选疫苗。快速生产英国牛津大学正在开发一种类似的疫苗，在马尔堡疫情爆发期间也被列为优先测试项目。牛津大学疫苗学家特雷莎·兰姆（TeresaLambe）领导马尔堡疫苗的开发，她说，迄今为止，在英国正在进行的一项试验中，该疫苗已被证明对少数参与者是安全的。纽约市国际艾滋病疫苗倡议首席执行官马克·范伯格（Mark Feinberg）表示，目前还没有他的组织正在开发的马尔堡疫苗（类似于已批准的埃博拉疫苗）的可用剂量，但生产计划于本周开始。。

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“The Rwandan health authorities are exceptionally capable, and I hope that they will be able to rapidly contain this outbreak,” Feinberg adds. “The risks of extension of the outbreak to adjacent countries is not insignificant and the consequences of this could be severe.”The fact that clinical-trial plans are in place and other groundwork has been laid increases the odds that Marburg vaccines and treatments will be deployed in Rwanda, says Nancy Sullivan, a viral immunologist at Boston University in Massachusetts.

范伯格补充道：“卢旺达卫生当局非常有能力，我希望他们能够迅速控制疫情。”。马萨诸塞州波士顿大学病毒免疫学家南希·沙利文（NancySullivan）说：“疫情扩展到邻国的风险并不微不足道，其后果可能很严重。”临床试验计划已经到位，其他基础工作已经奠定，这增加了马尔堡疫苗和治疗将在卢旺达部署的可能性。

But it’s likely that data on Marburg vaccines and treatments will need to come during multiple outbreaks.“The idea now is that you just move forward and don’t worry that the outbreak will end,” Sullivan adds. “It’s just a piece of the overall trial.”.

但马尔堡疫苗和治疗的数据可能需要在多次爆发期间提供。苏利文补充道：“现在的想法是，你只要向前迈进，不要担心疫情会结束。”。“这只是整个试验的一部分。”。