NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY

Course Code: PHR124

Course Name: Pharmaceutical Microbiology 1
Assignment topic: Ebola Virus Disease

Submitted by:
Submitted to:
Semin Chowdhuri Adiba Sadia Kamal
Asima NOWshin Lecturer,
Asif Ahmed Department of
ID: 1721428049 Pharmaceutical
Arpity Roy Fency Sciences
MD. Shykh Afsar Fahim
Section: 02

Date of Submission: 01-08-2022

Mode of Transmission of Ebola Virus.
Ebola virus disease can spread through direct contact such as through skin cut or mucous
membranes in the eyes, nose or mouth by body fluids includes urine, saliva, sweat, vomit,
breast milk, amniotic fluid and semen of a person who is infected by EVD or has died from
Ebola virus disease. Ebola virus also can spread objects like clothes, bedding, needles and
medical equipment contaminated with body fluids from a EVD infected person. It also spreads
through infected fruit bats or nonhuman primates such as apes and monkeys. Ebola virus can
spread from semen of a man who recovered from EVD. However, Ebola virus can transmit
through the handling and consumption of wild animal meat or wild animals infected with Ebola.
There is no evidence that mosquitoes or any insects can transmit Ebola virus. [1]

What are causes of Ebola Virus?

Ebola virus caused severe and frequently lethal disease called Ebola virus disease. EVD
outbreak started basically from a single case of probable zoonotic transmission by human-to-
human transmission via direct contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated fluids. Five
ebolaviruses have been considered with human infections, and four of them have been
identified as pathogens. However, it is tempting to speculate that Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a
zoonosis (that is, an infectious disease caused by an agent transmitted between animals and
humans) because retrospective epidemiological investigations have often been able to track
down the probable index cases of EVD outbreaks. [2]

How Ebola virus spread?

There are four steps that EVD can spread:

1. At first Ebola virus fuses with cells lining respiratory tract, eyes, body cavities or any
other body fluids.
2. Then the virus’s genetic contents are released into the cell.
3. This genetic material takes over cell machinery to replicate by itself.
4. Eventually, new copies of the virus are produced and released back into system. [3]

Life cycle of Ebola virus.

The life cycle begins of the Ebola virus with extracellular virion or enveloped virus outside of a
cell/host. When it finds a host, the virus has to make its way inside. This basically occurs
through the membranes such as the nose, mouth or open wounds. The virion attaches to a
receptor on the surface of a cell. The cells that are used the most are dendritic, endothelial, and
other immune cells. Once the virion is attached, the membrane of the cell will engulf the virion
and give it entry into the cell. The second step in the life cycle is recruitment of two host
proteins, Cathepsin B and L, to process the glycoprotein. The virus needs glycoprotein in order
to be released from the vesicle that transported it into the cell. Next step, the negative single
stranded RNA of the Ebola virus is transcribed into strands of viral mRNA. After viral mRNA is
being transcribed, it moves through the cytoplasm to the nucleus of the cell. Cytoplasm
accompanied by VP 30, polymerase and nucleocapsids. Now, the polymerase, along with the
replication mechanisms of the host cell, begin replication of the virus. The products of this
replication are multiple strands of negative single-stranded RNA. The last step of cycle, the
newly produced encapsulated virus is transported to the membrane of the cell. The interaction
the encapsulated virus to be released by budding off from the cell membrane. Eventually it
becomes a new extracellular virion and the cycles starts over. [4]

References:
1. https://cutt.ly/HXN6qyU
2. Jacob ST, Crozier I, Fischer WA, Hewlett A, Kraft CS, Vega MA, Soka MJ, Wahl V,
Griffiths A, Bollinger L, Kuhn JH. Ebola virus disease. Nature reviews Disease primers.
2020 Feb 20;6(1):1-31.
3. Moller-Tank S, Maury W. Ebola virus entry: a curious and complex series of events.
PLoS pathogens. 2015 Apr 30;11(4):e1004731.
4. Ebola Virus Life Cycle: Definition & Stages. (2018, February 28). Retrieved from
https://study.com/academy/lesson/ebola-virus-life-cycle-definition-stages.html.

Done by: Asif Ahmed (1721428049).