Scientists have developed a new cost-effective method to sequence the Ebola virus genome that could make diagnoses and surveillance of the deadly disease quicker, and help detect new forms of the virus.

The method may help West African nations rapidly and effectively track outbreaks with limited resources, researchers said.

With over 13,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths in eight affected countries, the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest to date, the first to spread to densely populated urban areas, and represents the first time the virus has been diagnosed outside of Africa.

To help contain the current outbreak, experts say that surveillance remains key.

Detecting viral RNA genomes in suspected fever patients helps confirm diagnoses of Ebola, and aids decisions to quarantine patients and begin tracing their contacts.

Yet sequencing viral genomes directly from blood samples holds many challenges. Samples contain very little viral RNA and are heavily contaminated with human RNA, while hot climates cause rapid degradation of viral RNA material and bio-safety measures bring further complications for handling samples. As such few Ebola genomes have been sequenced.

Research led by the Broad Institute, U.S., has now unveiled a new method to sequence genomes of the Ebola virus, that lowers contaminating human RNA from 80 per cent to less than 0.5 per cent, and was proven to work through the rapid sequencing of nearly 100 Ebola patient blood samples from the current outbreak, with a turnaround time of 10 days.

Using their improved sequencing approach, the team processed samples from 78 Ebola patients and reduced the normal length of the process threefold.

Their method also lowered costs by allowing them to sequence and assemble more viral genomes using fewer steps with a higher success rate.

“We were surprised that our strategy worked so well with such diverse, and often difficult samples of undefined quality and quantity. And because of the speed of our approach, we were rapidly able to make the viral genetic data available to the scientific community to provide timely insights for ongoing surveillance and control efforts in the area,” lead author Christian Matranga from the Broad Institute said.

The new approach does not rely on using previously known Ebola viral RNA sequences to begin sequencing new samples.

This means that the method has also been able to uncover the RNA sequences of uncommon genetic variants of the virus.

This information could help researchers understand viral evolution, shed light on the transmission of the virus, and allow deeper exploration of the viral genome, including the virus’s biological features and replication process.

The research was published in the journal Genome Biology.

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