Chinese scientists create mutant Ebola virus in laboratory that causes horrific symptoms

The lab-synthesized virus killed hamsters, researchers said.

Scientists in China have developed a virus using parts of the deadly Ebola to study the disease and its symptoms. A study detailing the experiment at Hebei Medical University was published in Direct Science. The researchers noted in the study that they injected the lethal virus into a group of hamsters and they died within three days. The hamsters developed “severe systemic illnesses similar to those seen in human Ebola patients, including multiple organ failure,” they further stated in the study.

For the study, the team of Chinese researchers used a contagious cattle disease and added a protein found in Ebola, which allows the virus to infect cells and spread throughout the human body.

After the injection, some hamsters developed secretions in their eyeballs, which impaired their vision and covered the surface of the eyeballs.

“It’s a sign that 3-week-old Syrian hamsters infected with the virus have the possibility to play a role in studying optic nerve disorders caused by EVD,” he said. researchers said.

Amid concerns about the alleged laboratory leak of the coronavirus that caused the latest pandemic, researchers said their goal was to find the right animal models that could safely mimic Ebola symptoms in the laboratory.

A virus like Ebola requires extremely secure facilities with Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4). Most laboratories around the world are BSL-2.

As a workaround, Chinese scientists used a different virus called vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which they developed to carry part of the Ebola virus – called glycoprotein (GP) – that plays a crucial role in helping the virus enter and infect cells. Of your country. host.

Study subjects included five female and five male hamsters.

When they harvested the dead animal’s organs, they discovered that the virus had accumulated in the heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, stomach, intestines and brain tissue.

Concluding that the study was a success, the investigators noted that the experiment provided a rapid preclinical evaluation of medical countermeasures against Ebola under BLS-2 conditions, concluding that the study was a success.

The last time a major Ebola infection was reported worldwide was between 2014 and 2016, in several West African countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).