Understanding how the virus spreads once it enters the body is critical to the development of effective drugs and** to stop the spread of the virus. Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) recently published their findings in the Journal of Infectious DiseasesThis suggests that the Ebola virus creates and uses intercellular tunnels to move between cells to evade**. 
Our findings suggest that viruses can create their own hiding place, hide, and then move to new cells and replicate," said Dr. Olena Shtanko, assistant professor at Texas Biomedical Center and senior author. Specifically, the virus is producing a substance known as "tunneling nanotubes," that are dynamic connections between cells that can allow cells to exchange particles over relatively long distances (up to 200 microns) to communicate. While these structures have been shown to play an important role in promoting neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, HIV-1, and influenza, Dr. Shtanko was the first to study their role in spreading the Ebola virus. "When we started this project a few years ago, we had in mind a general model of the spread of Ebola virus infectionViral particles infect cells, replication begins, new viral particles are produced and released into the body to infect neighboring cells- It's a little too simple," Dr. Shtanko said. Using state-of-the-art real-time scanning electronics and high-resolution 3D microscopy, Dr. Shtanko and her team demonstrated that Ebola virus infection in cells enhances the formation of tunneled nanotubes containing virus particles. The tunneling nanotubes then facilitate the transfer of these particles to other cells. 
Ebola virus is the causative agent that causes Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EVD). （*frederick a. murphy/cdc）
It is important to note that the formation of nanotubes does not require an intact virus to trigger, but only a small fraction of the virus encoding a single protein is required. And this can happen even if there are ** methods designed to stop the Ebola virus. “We have observed that the Ebola virus can be transmitted in cultures treated with inhibitors and antivirals**Dr. Shtanko explained. But the question of how exactly Ebola virus particles are transferred through tunneled nanotubes remains an open question. Dr. Shtanko and her team plan to experiment with advanced technologies such as laser microdissection, mass spectrometry, and low-abundance RNA sequencing to find answers. They will also conduct research on other related viruses, including whether the deadly Sudan virus and Marburg virus use the same mechanism to spread infection. The team will work with Dr. Ricardo Carrion, a professor of biomedical sciences at Texas State, to analyze the presence of nanotubes of the virus in tissues from animal models. The study was conducted with funding from two R21 grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health and two grants from the Texas Biomedical Forum.