Ebola virus disease (EVD)

formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF)

is one of the most ferocious fulminating infectious diseases so far for human beings. Since it was first reported in Sudan and Zaire in 1976

there have been 8 outbreaks at comparative large scale

and all of them appeared in Africa

with an  average mortality as higher as 67.98%. The disease is caused by a zoonotic pathogen named as Ebola virus (EBOV). Although the natural reservoir for EBOV has not been identified

EBOV can infect the nonhuman primates

including chimpanzee and monkey

and result in lethality in the infected animals. EBOV is classified into family Filoviridae

genus Ebolavirus. Five species with variable virulence have been discovered in the genus Ebolavirus. Zaire-EBOV is the strongest one

and causes the current large-scale EVD outbreak in the West of Africa in 2014. EBOV is filamentous with diversified forms

and mostly appeared as cladodromous. The viron of EBOV is composed of core

nucleocapsid and envelope. The genome of EBOV is a single minus-strand RNA molecule encoding 7 structural proteins

which are involved in the replication

infection and pathogenicity of the virus. Direct contact transmission is the major route for EBOV transmission. However

the actual mechanisms for EBOV pathogenicity were poorly understood so far. As a pathogen of Biohazard Grade 4

the operations on active virus of EBOV

such as performing diagnosis and doing research experiment

are severely restricted in the laboratory of Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4). Determinations of EBOV specific antibodies

antigens and nucleic acid are helpful for the diagnosis of EVD. The positive detection by real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) targeting EBOV RNA is considered as the golden standard for laboratory diagnosis of EVD. Till now

there are no available strategies for the treatment of EVD. Several vaccine candidates against EVD are still in the developing progress

and support therapy is commonly applied in clinical practice.