| Source | Explicit | Implicit | Applications |
| "Regulation of a Runaway Replicator" | The Ebola virus consists of 4
spiral shaped tubes of distinct viral protein codes and covered with plasma
membrane from its host cells. There are more proteins and carbohydrates
along the outside of the thing. Along the inside there is a negative sense
strip of RNA that has the codes for the seven viral proteins that make
up Ebola.
When this virus is eaten by a human macrophage cell, the protective armor is removed and the proteins take over the cell, instructing it to produce the proteins needed to make a virus. At a later point, it switches to instructing the cell to put the viruses together from these proteins. These bud out of the cell membrane and leave to attack other cells. Since the captured cells are neglecting their normal cellular duties to produce Ebola, they will eventually die. Individual strains of Ebola do not exchange chromosomes or adapt from each other; the genetic code for each strain is really rigid. |
Ebola tricks the immune system's
cells into letting it in; it’s their job to be PAC Man and capture the
intruders in our bodies, but when they eat an Ebola virus, it takes over
anyway.
Scientists aren’t quite sure how the virus switches from telling the cell to make Ebola parts to telling it to make individual copies of Ebola as a whole. How different strains of Ebola come about when the individual codes of the virus do not mix with each other is as yet unclear either. |
The knowledge of how this virus
is structured and attacks cells could be used to somehow alter the immune
macrophage cells to let them recognize the Ebola virus and somehow destroy
it without letting it into themselves.
Also, if it can be determined how different strains of Ebola form without communicating with each other, further strains may be able to be stopped from developing. Finally, if we know how the virus attacks human macrophage cells, we can look for other animals with similar macrophages in the wild of Africa, where the virus’ reservoir is likely to be located. If we find animals whose immune system is similar to ours, we can test them for Ebola infection as well to see if they are carriers. |
| "Experimental Inoculation of Plants and Animals with Ebola Virus" | 33 varieties of 24 plant species
and 19 species of vertebrates and invertebrates were experimentally inoculated
with a culture of the Ebola virus. While none of the plants (mostly crops
and weeds common to the area) supported reproduction of the virus, it did
reproduce in brown house snakes, NIH mice, and several varieties of bats,
the bats hosting the greatest rate of viral reproduction and virus count.
Although this study can’t name bats as the sure reservoir hosts for Ebola, it can offer a successful way to test for viral host potential and narrows down the search in the wild for the true reservoir host animal. |
These bats, which are found in the wild in the general location of the proposed reservoir of the virus, have the capability to be the host of the Ebola virus, but none caught in the wild have been found to carry it. They still may not be what scientists are looking for, but these species should be investigated further in the wild to find whether they are carriers there as well. | If bats can be clearly named as the carrier species for the Ebola virus, then contaminated communities can be destroyed. Also, if this is found to be true, their migration patterns can be analyzed and their other habitats can be observed so "hot spots" where outbreaks of Ebola are likely to occur can be monitored closely or even evacuated permanently. |
| "Isolation and Phylogenetic Characterization of Ebola Viruses Causing Different Outbreaks in Gabon" | There are more genetic subtypes
of the Ebola virus than has been thought. Three recent outbreaks in Gabon
has been analyzed to find that they were caused by three different varieties
of the Ebola subtype Zaire.
It is still unknown how these different varieties form. They all have affected the great apes, and more studies of the habitats and food sources of these primates could lead to clues on the virus’ reservoir. |
The Ebola virus must somehow find a way to change if it doesn’t exchange its DNA with other strains; a likely theory is by mutation. The true inner workings of this disease are unfortunately something scientists do not understand completely, which is usually not easily admitted. | If the Ebola virus can be kept from changing, mutating, or evolving in however unknown way it does, then it can perhaps be eliminated by being made unable to adapt to changes in its environment; unfortunately, its reservoir is also yet unknown. Also, if the virus can be kept from evolving, an effective vaccine might be developed more easily. Finally, if these viruses have changed by being transferred between animals, finding the reservoir hosts could also mean finding the means of evolution for Ebola. |
| "Pasteur Institute Finds Ebola In Non-Primates" | Traces of the Ebola virus have been detected in 7 individual small, ground level rodents caught in the Central African Republic. The traces of viral sequence found in the animals’ cells are identical to strains of Ebola isolated in Zaire and Gabon. This proves that terrestrial species have been in contact with the virus, which goes against the current hypothesis that the reservoir host for the disease is the bat. These results also indicate that there may be a common Ebola subtype that strains from across Africa originated from. | The true Ebola host may not be bats after all. A non-primate species has finally been found in the wild that contains the virus. No live virus, however, was found, so the rodents may have carried the virus at some point in the past, or are descended from rodents that carried live virus in their cells. The rodents also may have been exposed to the virus in their habitat or food and not contracted it while it may have still had an impact on their cells. | This is a great step in finding the host for Ebola. These rodents themselves are not currently hosts, because they contain no live virus, but they can be investigated further to find others of their species who may be hosts to live virus. Also, studying their environment, such as their food sources and habitat, could point to where they got the virus from; perhaps they share a food source with primates and even bats, who don’t necessarily carry the virus in the wild. |
| "Ebola’s Lethal Secrets" | A death from Ebola is preceded
by great hemorrhaging. Studies on guinea pigs are showing why this happens
and also aiding in developing a vaccine.
During the initial infection, the virus floods the blood with glycoprotein, which is part of a 2-pronged attack on the body. Researchers found that there are 2 types of glycoprotein, one released into the bloodstream and one remaining attached to the virus. The free form attaches to white blood cells called neutrophils; this cripples them and keeps them from falling for backup from other immune system cells: T cells, which kill virus-infected cells, and B cells, which make antibodies. When the neutrophils are impeded by the glycoproteins, they are helpless and allow the virus to attack blood vessels, especially endolethial cells. As the virus commandeers more cells to reproduce more virus, the blood vessels become leaky and weak. The victim’s blood pressure falls and their body can no longer pump enough blood to vital organs. They bleed to death before their immune systems can respond. |
In this article, the end result of a disease has been explained through, back to the beginning, to the cellular level. The Ebola virus doesn’t kill by destroying cells specifically, but by destroying enough so that the circulatory system is disrupted enough so that the immune system can’t work. This illustrates perfectly the interrelationship between parts and the whole and between the systems of the human body. | If a way can be found to keep
the glycoprotein from attaching to neutrophils, then the immune system
could much more easily fight off a bout of Ebola.
This really relates to cells because it specifically describes how the virus attacks the cells. The part to whole, I repeat, is greatly important here because while the virus viciously ravages through the body as a whole, it has to start at the smallest level: the cell. Killing enough at the cellular level will eventually result in death at the level of the organism. |
| CDC Disease Information on Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | Ebola is a filovirus,
an RNA virus of the family Filoviridae, and has four identified subtypes:
Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, Ebola-Ivory Coast, and the fourth, Ebola-Reston,
which has only as of yet caused disease in non-human primates. Its natural
reservoir is unknown, but it is thought to be zoonotic
and hosted by a mammal native to the African continent.
The virus is spread incidentally: humans do not "carry" the virus. Researchers have hypothesized that the first patient in an outbreak always is infected through an animal. The virus can be transmitted from direct contact with the blood or secretions of an Ebola victim. People can also be exposed by indirect contact through objects, such as re-used needles, contaminated with infected body fluids. |
This is a fairly straightforward
presentation of facts about the disease, and so there is not a great deal
of implicit fact to retrieve.
However, one can take it to mean that the form Ebola-Reston, which has not been recognized in humans, has not YET been recognized in humans and could still possibly be a threat. |
If humans do not carry the virus without symptoms, then it unlikely that it is even possible for other primates to do so, so they can be ruled out as the reservoir hosts. Also, any animals similar to primates in blood vessel structure and such may also be ruled out. The carrier has to be significantly different than the organisms who suffer from it: they must be so different that their cells are not affected by the virus in the same way as primates. |