In a study, a team from Northwestern University used mass spectrometry, ‘a technique that identifies specific elements in a sample by mass-to search for interactions between human proteins and Ebola virus proteins'. They found strong evidence of the interaction between the Ebola virus protein and the new human protein RBBPS6, said the reports.
"If you take that peptide and put it into human cells, you can block Ebola virus infection," said Judd Hultquist, assistant professor of medicine in the division of infectious disease at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Conversely, when you remove the RBBP6 protein from human cells, Ebola virus replicates much faster”, he further added.
"The question is whether we can manipulate it in an effective pharmacological way for it to have therapeutic value. What we envision is a small molecule drug that mimics this human protein and could be used in response to an Ebola virus outbreak," said Hultquist.