Frozen Ebola virus reveals its deadly spike

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers who have managed to freeze the Ebola virus and make images of the spike it uses to infect cells said on Wednesday they hope their work may lead to a treatment or vaccine for the deadly microbe.

The researchers have a picture of the so-called spike protein, used by many viruses to get into the cells they infect.

Ebola's spike protein is concealed, which may help explain why the virus is so deadly, said Erica Ollmann Saphire, of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, who led the study.

"It cloaks itself with human carbohydrates," Ollman Saphire said in a telephone interview.

"It's kind of like Harry Potter wrapped in an invisibility cloak. But there are three or four little sites peeking out," she added.

These may provide a target for a drug or vaccine, or perhaps an immune-based treatment for Ebola, she said.

"We actually have the roadmap to figure out where the chinks in its armor are," Ollman Saphire said.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is rare, but there is no good treatment, no cure and no vaccine, and the virus usually kills between 50 percent and 90 percent of its victims.