NPC Disease and it’s Connection to Ebola

Amy Marcus at the Wall Street Journal has written a short story about the unexpected connection between NPC and Ebola today.  It is a fascinating article that provides further compelling evidence about 2 concepts.

First, the idea that Rare Disease research can inform the research going on in the “big conditions” like Ebola

Second, it appears that NPC Disease is the unintended outcome of genetic protections that may have evolved in order to protect us against horrible viruses like Ebola.  It appears (from the animal models) that carriers of NPC mutations are more likely to survive an Ebola infection.

We donated our ‘fibroblasts’ (skin cells) in 2009 to a wonderful non-profit bio-bank called The Corriel Institute for Medical Research.  We could not have imagined that our cells would be used by researchers to study Ebola and to discover that the NPC gene and it’s proteins could provide critical answers to how best to treat and protect against Ebola.

The original article on the WSJ pay site is HERE.   A reposted version of the article is HERE on the Global Genes website.