A new study reveals how the Ebola virus (EBOV) travels through the layers of skin and emerges on the surface, suggesting skin contact as a potential route of transmission.
Research ers have traced a cellular route Ebola virus (EBOV) uses to traverse the inner and outer layers of skin and emerge onto the skin's surface. The study identifies new cell types within the skin that are targeted by EBOV during infection and shows that human skin specimens actively support EBOV infection. Overall, the findings suggest that the skin's surface may be one route of person-to-person transmission.
Ebola is a deadly hemorrhagic disease caused by a virus that is endemic in parts of East-Central and West Africa. Most people are aware that a primary route for person-to-person transmission is through contact with bodily fluids from an infected person. But more recent outbreaks, including the 2013-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, demonstrated that infectious Ebola virus (EBOV) is also found on the skin's surface of those who have succumbed to infection or at late times during infection. Although evidence suggests that EBOV can be passed on from skin contact with a person in the later stages of the disease, very little is known about how the virus makes its way out of the body and onto the skin's surface. In a new study, researchers at University of Iowa Health Care and colleagues at Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Boston University, have traced a cellular route the virus uses to traverse the inner and outer layers of skin and emerge onto the skin's surface. The study identifies new cell types within the skin that are targeted by EBOV during infection and shows that human skin specimens actively support EBOV infection. Overall, the findings, which were published Jan. 1 in, suggest that the skin's surface may be one route of person-to-person transmission. 'The skin is the largest organ in the human body yet is woefully understudied compared to most other organs. Interactions of EBOV with skin cells have not previously been extensively examined,' says Wendy Maury, PhD, UI professor of microbiology and immunology, and senior author of the stud
EBOLA VIRUS SKIN CONTACT TRANSMISSION RESEARCH HEALTH
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