Tobacco plant: A possible key to Ebola vaccine

Ebola viruses, belong to the family Filoviridae, are considered as one of the world’s most virulent pathogen which cause Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) in human and nonhuman primates[1]. Virologic investigation identified Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) as the causative agent (Figure 1)[2]. So far the epidemiology and ecology of this deadly pathogen is mainly unknown[3]. Unfortunately, these viruses have been unnoticed in unidentified reservoir species in subSaharan Africa, most probably as enzootic infections, until varying ecological circumstances leading to human infections[4-7]. The recent outbreak of Ebola has caused more cases and deaths than any previous Ebola virus disease epidemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on August 8, 2014[8,9]. Recently ZMapp serum is under development to fight against Ebola virus disease and tobacco plants is much in news as ZMapp drug can be manufactured by using them[10]. Present review briefly describes the role of tobacco plant in medicine, history of medicinal use of tobacco and most importantly production of ZMapp drug through tobacco plant.