Ebola Health News: Doctors Working to Cure Virus With Antibodies From Former Patient

Research shows that Ebola survivors may hold the cure to the deadly virus outbreak in West Africa, which has killed 7,000 people and counting.

In order to combat the disease, Vanderbilt University researcher Dr. James Crowe is using the blood of an Ebola survivor to create new, potent drugs by extracting the proteins that helped them overcome the virus, Reuters reports. He received a blood sample in November from Dr. Rick Sacra, a University of Massachusetts physician who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia.

Sacra, a medical Christian missionary with SIM USA, explained that doctors are working to extract the antibodies, immune system proteins that seek and destroy foreign invaders like viruses or bacteria, from his blood, reports Press TV.

"They can take antibodies they find in my blood and map them out. They are looking for the ones that are most important in neutralizing the virus," Sacra told Reuters.

Sacra said he made the blood donation with "no strings attached" and is not looking for a payout if a product based on his antibodies hits the market.

Crowe is working with U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc, which he said will manufacture the antibodies for further testing.

Mapp is also testing its own drug called ZMapp, a cocktail of three antibodies that has helped treat a handful of Ebola patients. Crowe hopes to improve ZMapp by isolating the human antibodies of actual survivors and using that to create a drug that could treat all strains of Ebola.

Several leading doctors in the science community have embraced the idea of using survivors' antibodies in the fight against Ebola. In addition, Crowe works with academic and corporate partners at Emory University to develop and test human antibodies from Ebola survivors.

Other pharmaceuticals are also part of the race to develop drugs to address the ongoing outbreak. These companies include Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp in Canada, which is testing a treatment, while GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Merck & Co are working on vaccines in partnership with NewLink Genetics Corp.