Preface

**Section 3 Structure and Pathogenesis of Ebola Virus 99**

**VI** Contents

**Ebola Viral Infection 137**

Sebastian Pleško and Črtomir Podlipnik

Chapter 6 **Roles of VP35, VP40 and VP24 Proteins of Ebola Virus in Pathogenic and Replication Mechanisms 101**

Chapter 7 **Ebola Virus's Glycoproteins and Entry Mechanism 119**

Rahma Ait Hammou, Yassine Kasmi, Khadija Khataby, Fatima Ezzahra Laasri, Said Boughribil and My Mustapha Ennaji

Khadija Khataby, Yassine Kasmi, Rahma Ait Hammou, Fatima Ezzahra Laasri, Said Boughribi and My Mustapha Ennaji

Chapter 8 **Strategies for the Development of Small Molecule Inhibitors of**

The recent outbreak of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa reminded us that an effective antiviral treatment still does not exist, despite the significant progress that has re‐ cently been made in understanding the biology and pathology of this lethal disease. Aside from the overwhelming health effects, the Ebola epidemic also influenced the social and eco‐ nomic situations in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. Projections from the World Bank have shown long-term damage that exceed \$2.2 billion for the year of 2015, which represents more than 10% in the gross domestic product (GDP) of these three countries.

The book *Ebola* is an up-to-date resource of know-how about various aspects of the Ebola virus (EBOV) and the related disease. Many experts from different fields of science and from different parts of the world contributed to the creation of this book.

The first section of the book describes epidemiology. In this section, the reader may find the interesting contribution about the firsthand experience in managing Ebola in low-resource settings, with a detailed description of the Sudan Ebola virus and the Bundibugyo Ebola virus outbreaks occurred in Uganda from 2000 to 2012. The Uganda experience is extremely valuable and provides opportunities for further research of described strategies that could improve the management and control of Ebola in low-resource countries. In the next chap‐ ter, authors have revisited the various stages of the EVD outbreak, from early triage and case definitions, through ramping up isolation and treatment capacity, to how best to retain and develop resilience in health systems, alongside research efforts and outbreak control principles. They have highlighted that collaborations and partnerships at national and inter‐ national levels are vital in building health systems for early surveillance and management of emerging infections. In the last chapter of this section, the reader may read about the experi‐ ence of preparedness as well as risk assessment done in Latin America regarding the threat of Ebola for this region.

The second section of the book is dedicated to genetic analysis of the Ebola virus. This sec‐ tion includes a very interesting study of the genomic portrait of haplotype diversity in EBOV from the 1976 to the 2014 outbreaks. The authors of this study detected the diversity of viral haplotypes with systematic calculation of phylogeographic distribution in EBOV. Their observations highlight how variations of the Ebola virus are substantially different in virulence or transmissibility in comparison to the virus lineages associated with 2014 out‐ breaks in Sierra Leone, which provides a clue to understand the 2014 EBOV spreading. The second chapter of Teng et al. offers a systematic investigation of microRNA-like small RNAs in EBOV genome by bioinformatics tools. Their findings may shed light on the underlying molecular mechanisms of the pathological process of Ebola virus disease (EVD).

The last section of the book is dedicated to the structure and pathogenesis of the Ebola virus, which is recognized as one of the most "intelligent" viruses, with mysterious simplicity in its genome, which encodes only seven genes. Despite of its genetic simplicity, the virus has complex and very deadly lifestyle. The first targets of Ebola virus are typically immune cells, such as dendritic cells and macrophages whose primary function is to alert the im‐ mune system to the incoming threat. When it damages early immune cells, Ebola becomes very efficient in its devastating action. As the dendritic cells and macrophages fall apart, they produce a cytokine storm, which further harms immune cells and also other tissues. Ebola then attacks many other organs. Unlike HIV, Ebola is able to invade almost all other human cells, except for lymphocytes. The knowledge about EBOV structure and pathogene‐ sis, collected in the book, may contribute in the task of searching an effective medication against Ebola.

In the first instance, the editor of this book would like to thank the authors for their contri‐ butions; many thanks go to the great support of personnel from the InTech publisher, espe‐ cially to Mrs. Ivona Lovrić, who carried up the Ebola book project. Many thanks go also to my close collaborator Mr. Sebastian Pleško, for his continued and valuable assistance in this project. The editor of this book is also grateful for the support of the Slovenian Research Agency through the research program P1-0201.

> **Črtomir Podlipnik** Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

**Epidemiology of Ebola Viral Disease**

The last section of the book is dedicated to the structure and pathogenesis of the Ebola virus, which is recognized as one of the most "intelligent" viruses, with mysterious simplicity in its genome, which encodes only seven genes. Despite of its genetic simplicity, the virus has complex and very deadly lifestyle. The first targets of Ebola virus are typically immune cells, such as dendritic cells and macrophages whose primary function is to alert the im‐ mune system to the incoming threat. When it damages early immune cells, Ebola becomes very efficient in its devastating action. As the dendritic cells and macrophages fall apart, they produce a cytokine storm, which further harms immune cells and also other tissues. Ebola then attacks many other organs. Unlike HIV, Ebola is able to invade almost all other human cells, except for lymphocytes. The knowledge about EBOV structure and pathogene‐ sis, collected in the book, may contribute in the task of searching an effective medication

In the first instance, the editor of this book would like to thank the authors for their contri‐ butions; many thanks go to the great support of personnel from the InTech publisher, espe‐ cially to Mrs. Ivona Lovrić, who carried up the Ebola book project. Many thanks go also to my close collaborator Mr. Sebastian Pleško, for his continued and valuable assistance in this project. The editor of this book is also grateful for the support of the Slovenian Research

**Črtomir Podlipnik**

University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology,

against Ebola.

VIII Preface

Agency through the research program P1-0201.
