By: Bill Snyder
MBP091, an investigational, anti-Marburg virus antibody identified by Vanderbilt Health researchers and under development by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., was provided to Ethiopian health officials during that country’s first outbreak of the deadly viral infection late last year.
Nine people died and five recovered from Marburg virus disease during the outbreak, which began in mid-November in Ethiopia’s southern region. Successful containment of the outbreak was declared Jan. 26.
A close cousin of Ebola, another hemorrhagic virus, Marburg is transmitted by fruit bats and exposure to body fluids from infected individuals. There currently are no approved treatments or vaccines to protect against the infection, which can cause internal bleeding, organ failure, and in roughly 50% of cases, death.
From the blood of a Marburg survivor, then-graduate student Andrew Flyak, PhD, and colleagues in the Crowe lab used a high-efficiency method to isolate for the first time human monoclonal antibodies that bound to an antigenic glycoprotein on the viral surface.
Flyak, currently assistant professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Cornell University, “laid the foundation” for successful isolation of the antibodies, which also neutralized a strain of Ebola, said James Crowe Jr., MD, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics, who led the discovery team.
Their findings, reported in 2015 in the journal Cell, confirmed “the good news … humans do make antibodies when they are infected that can kill these viruses,” he said at the time.
The Crowe lab, known internationally for isolating and developing human monoclonal antibodies with the potential to treat and prevent emerging viral infections, including COVID-19, began working with Mapp Biopharmaceutical in 2014.
To develop MBP091, the company contracted with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
BARDA also supported development of the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s investigational cAd3-Marburg Vaccine, which was provided with MBP091 during the outbreak under an agreement between U.S. and Ethiopian health officials.
“Therapeutic development for these types of diseases takes time and the energy of a lot of people,” said Crowe, the Ann Scott Carell Professor and professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology at Vanderbilt Health. “Congratulations and gratitude for the team at Mapp, HHS, and all the teams on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa for making this happen,” he said.
MBP091 was previously used to treat patients with Marburg virus disease in 2024 during an outbreak in Rwanda under a similar mechanism.
This work has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract Nos. 75A50122C00076 and HHSO100201600021C.
