DARPA 'Cure' For Ebola Could Protect Us Against ALL Diseases: DNA Breakthrough Could Prevent Future Mass Outbreaks

US military's DARPA has developed a method to stop infectious diseases. It involves encoding RNA and DNA with instructions for antibodies. A person could then be injected with the antibodies at a pharmacy (stock image shown). This enables a person's cells to fight an infectious disease (Image source: Daily Mail)

United States Military Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA says they may have a method to stop all infectious diseases - including Ebola. By encoding RNA and DNA in a specific way, Darpa say a person could simply go into a shop and get an injection to protect them against a disease (SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE).

This could be used to prevent mass outbreaks in affected areas.

FUSION report continues:

‘We’re going to take the genetic code and put it into a format where you go to your drug store or doctor and get a shot in the arm,’ said DARPA programme manager Dan Wattendorf at an event in San Francisco. ‘There’s a low-cost of goods, no cold chain, and we would produce the correct antibody in [any] individual directly.’

The method works by creating powerful antibodies from survivors of an infectious disease.

‘Instructions’ on how to make these antibodies are then encoded into RNA and DNA, which are injected into people who might come into contact with the disease.

Their cells then start creating the antibodies, protecting them from catching the potentially dangerous disease.

DARPA is currently funding the project through Emory University in Atlanta.

Experts say the method, if proven to be safe and effective, would be faster and cheaper than conventional drug production and could potentially be used to treat illnesses such as seasonal flu or malaria.

Antibodies are typically grown in large vats of mammal cells or in some cases, tobacco plants, such as US pharmaceutical company Mapp Biopharmaceutical's experimental Ebola treatment ZMapp.

DARPA has awarded Emory up to £7.3 million (US$10.8 million) over three years to direct the project. 

Emory is using blood samples from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to test the method.

Initially, the technology was being developed in hopes of protecting soldiers from seasonal flu or germs that cause diarrhea on the battlefield, but the Ebola outbreak presented an opportunity to accelerate the research.

To succeed, researchers will need to identify an effective delivery system to carry the genetic instructions into the body and learn how to quickly identify the most protective antibodies.

The goal is to get the process down to 90 days for most diseases.

The group is in the process of characterizing several Ebola antibody candidates to find which are the most potent. At that point, the researchers and DARPA will seek out drug company partners.

Testing in people could begin within two years, with the goal of having a better weapon for the next outbreak - whatever it may be.